India And World Civilization D P Singhal

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

D. P. Singhal, Professor of History at the University of Queensland,
received an MA from Panjab University and a PhD in History from the
University of London. A Fellow of both the Royal Historical and Royal
Asiatic Societies, London, he was a lecturer in Asian History at the
University of Malaya before moving to the University of Queensland.

INDIA

and

WORLD CIVILIZATION

D. P. SINGHAL

Published by
Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2014
7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj
New Delhi 110002

Sales centres:
Allahabad Bengaluru Chennai
Hyderabad Jaipur Kathmandu

Kolkata Mumbai

Copyright © D. P. Singhal 1993, 2014
All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or
stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-81-291-3092-1
10987654321
‘The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Typeset by Saanavi Graphics, Noida
Printed at Shree Maitrey Printech Pvt. Ltd., Noida
‘This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way
of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated,

without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published.

For Devahuti

Chapter I
II
Il

CONTENTS
Part I

Foreword

Harappa to Athens

Contact by Conquest

‘The Age of Syncretism

Pax Arabica, the Channel-bed of Culture
Naturalism and Science in Ancient India
Myths, Fables, Music and Games
Romanies: Lords of the Open Country
Buddhist Proselytism in Central Asia
The Dragon under the Bodhi Tree

Ilustration opposite pages

Chapter I
II

Ill

CONTENTS
Part II

‘The Eastern Horizon of Buddhism

Red Indians or Asiomericans—
Indian Foam on Pacific Waves

Suvarnabhumi: Asianization of Indian Culture
Impact of Islam on Indian Society
European Discovery of India
Western Response to Modern India
Indian Response to Modern Europe
Illustration opposite pages

Notes

Notes Jor Part I
Notes for Part IT

Bibliography
Index

417

455
505
593
634
672
722

768
824

849
896

Since verbal science has no final end,

Since life is short, and obstacles impend,

Let central facts be picked and firmly fixed,
As swans extract the milk with water mixed.

The PANCATANTRA

| India and World Civilization

Part I

Foreword

IF THE EVOLUTION of world-civilization could be reduced to a simple
graphic illustration, the above symbol would perhaps be an accurate
representation. The symbol’s base is a solid figure, a pyramid, representing
the community of those early cultures in which man sought to solve
the problems of his environment. From the top of the pyramid spring
divergent branches, bending first away from each other and then back
again to form a new conjunction in modern times. These branches
represent the diffusion of cultures and their later gradual reunification
by new scientific and technological advances. Between these branches,
even at their point of greatest dissociation, run slender criss-cross

xiii

FOREWORD

filaments linking them together, and representing the various ideas and
skills which the civilizations of the world continued to borrow from
one another throughout history. After the branches rejoin a cluster of
divergent radians appear, representing the many unique developments
which have resulted from the new cross-fertilisation of cultures, reaching
out towards the future. The present study is an account of India’s role in
this cultural phenomenon.

Indian civilization is distinctive for its antiquity and continuity. Apart
from its own vitality, the continuity of Indian civilization is largely due
to its ability to adapt to alien ideas, harmonise contradictions and mould
new thought patterns. Her constant contacts with the outside world also
gave India the opportunity to contribute to other civilizations.

The earliest origins of the Indian civilization are traced to the period of
the highly advanced urban Harappan cities. Since then, and even before,
trade between India and the West had been an important contact which
continued until the decline of the Roman Empire.

During the second millennium B.c. the Aryans came to India laying
the foundation of Vedic Civilization. There are close resemblances
between the language and mythology, religious traditions and social
institutions of the Indians and Iranians on the one hand, and those of
the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans and Slavs on the other. Contact
between the Indians and the Greeks during the period of Persian
ascendancy was close and constant, and became even closer after the
military campaigns of Alexander. After Alexander’s death his Empire
dissolved, but for some two centuries Greek or semi-Greek principalities
continued in the north-western regions of India.

By this time the Romans had become the dominant power in the
West and Christianity had begun to spread. India and Rome maintained
friendly relations—intermittent diplomatically but constant commercially.
This brisk trade led to Indian settlements in Alexandria and to Roman
and Egyptian settlements in India, and provided further opportunity
T

si

: a and Egypt. The accomplishments
of this era of cultural syncretism have seldom been ae
However, from the fall of the Roman Empire until the discovery

of the direct sea-route between India and Europe in 1498 there was

Xiv

FOREWORD

little direct contact between the two. This was a period of gradual social
disintegration, political upheaval and intellectual stagnation in India.
In Western Asia the Arabs were gaining power and it was they who
transmitted Indian scientific thought and fables to Europe. At some stage
during this period the Romanies began to move out of India towards the
West carrying with them certain segments of Indian culture, especially
music and dance.

The Europeans came to India in the last decade of the fifteenth
century but their interests were mainly commercial. It was not until
the last quarter of the eighteenth century that a real understanding of
Indian learning began. The European intellectual world, Germany in
particular, gradually became receptive to Indian religious thought and
Sanskrit literature.

In recent times, in consequence of the frequent exchange of Indian and
European scholars, and of improved technology, greater dissemination
of Indian knowledge and thought took place. This includes Gandhi’s
ideas—especially his doctrine of non-violence and Satyagraha—which
came to be known widely in the West.

Northwards, Indian cultural contacts extended through Central Asia
to East Asia. Central Asia had been in the closest contact with India, and
remained a thriving centre of Buddhist culture for nine or ten centuries.
From Central Asia Buddhism travelled to East Asia and helped to build
the philosophical and metaphysical framework of East Asian thought, and
to mould the distinctive civilizations of China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.

Indians came into contact with the countries of Southeast Asia
principally for commercial reasons. But wherever they settled they
introduced their culture and civilization. In turn, they were influenced
by the indigenous culture, laying thus the foundation of a new culture in
the region. Indian cultural contact with Southeast Asia covers a period of
more than thirteen hundred years, and segments of Indian culture even
reached eastwards of this region, across the Pacific Ocean, the periphery
of ancient America.

India was influenced by Iran, Greece and then Islam. The synthesis
between Islamic and Indian cultures took several centuries to complete,

and throughout India the pattern was an initial clash followed by
fusion.

XV

FOREWORD

While India was in a state of political unrest and cultural stagnation,
European powers and influences appeared in the country. The
introduction of Western culture, English education and scientific
techniques gave a jolt to India’s traditional life. The long dormant
intellectual impulse suddenly became active and a new Indian spirit was
born, leading to the modernisation of India.

Whilst the transmission of ideas, goods and influences was mainly
from India to the outside world in ancient times, in modern times it
has been the other way round. If a broad generalisation is permitted, it
would appear that there is hardly a major school of thought with which
Indian thought has not entered into a dialogue at one time or the other,
directly or indirectly.

The story has been told in bits and pieces in hundreds of works.
This study seeks to put these pieces together in a co-ordinated whole
to synthesize the original research of numerous authorities, including
scientists, philosophers, historians, linguists, archaeologists and
anthropologists. Most of the judgments are of specialists but have been
woven together in a wider historical context. Often they appear in a new
guise and give rise to new overall conclusions.

Transmission of ideas proceeded in a variety of ways. During the
early phase it was mainly through the large-scale migrations of nomadic
peoples. Later, as life became more settled, merchants, settlers and, to
some extent, soldiers were the principal transmitters. With the expansion
of intellectual life and organised religions, new classes of cultural
couriers, such as scholars and Missionaries, were added. Mediaeval
military conquests, such as the Islamic, also transmitted ideas to and
fro. In modern times, with scientific and technological advances, cultural
exchange became prodigious.

‘The problems involved in the study of such a vast and varied subject
CE SHEA) and complex. When an encounter between two powerful
civilizations takes place, its vibrations are felt at all levels and cultural
synthesis proceeds in a variety of ways, some of which are not detected
fora long time, and some never. During the long,
ofassimilation, the original character ofan idea m
partly, or not at all. Itis a kind of chain reacti
All this, strictly speaking,

evolutionary process
ay be retained wholly,
on giving rise to new ideas.
is part of the impact of the new culture but,

xvi

FOREWORD

for a historian, it would be impossible to determine such influences with
even rough accuracy.

Moreover, such impact generates both positive and negative response.
Positive response would include direct borrowing, while endeavouring
to bring out one’s own inherent vitality of traditions and purity of
beliefs. Negative response would include rigid defence of all traditional
concepts and institutions which cements conservatism and lead _
rigidity in society. Defence also often leads to irrational defiance, even
to counter attacks. Reluctant to accept new ideas and yet unable to reject
their validity, conservative resistance sometimes gives birth to further
new ideas. Arnold Toynbee calls the three responses on the part of
receiving civilizations “recoil,” “adaptation” and “synthesis.” No amount
of human ingenuity can trace the full course of cultural interaction in
all its ramifications through all these stages. At best the-assessment
of mutual influences must remain partial and even at times subject to
divergent opinions.

Cultural interaction is not a wholesale transplantation of a culture.
It assumes a certain degree of cultural development on the part of the
participant groups. In assessing the degree of mutual influence, allowance
must be made for the independent development of intellectual traditions
in the various areas. For all ideas and concepts have a common beginning,
however small and remote, in the primitive societies to which we trace
our common ancestry; all human groups have, in their respective ways,
wondered at the surrounding universe and have sought to see reality
beyond it. The common nature of inquiry can lead to similar results,
reached independently. Again, certain ideas of a fundamental nature,
from which further theories have developed—some form of monism
or dualism, for instance have been common to all communities. Man’s
methods of reasoning are somewhat similar all over the world, as are
human reactions. It is therefore to be expected that attitudes towards
certain concepts would be common to all human groups. If, however,
the cultural resemblances are too close in detail, too frequent in a given
situation, or are accompanied by evidence of contact, mutual influence
ought to be accepted.

The uncertainties of Indian chronology present a most difficult
problem. Five thousand years or more of Indian history is generally

HF a:
XV11

FOREWORD

classified into three periods: ancient, mediaeval and modern. There are
differing views on both the nomenclature and dates covering each period.
In fact, until some important dates were fixed with the help of Greek
sources, there was an almost complete absence of dating in Indian history.
Even now the dates of political events and the vast mass of literature
which form the basis of cultural study are imperfectly known. Historical
facts seem to dissolve in the hands of ancient Indians changing into epic
poetry, sagas, mythology and legends. Time was unreal and of secondary
importance. Consequently genetic analysis of philosophical ideas had
little relevance to the value of ideas.

Considerable work, however, is being done in fixing Indian dates and
a break-through may occur soon. Unless this happens the antiquity of a
concept and consequently its nationality cannot be finalised. For instance,
ifan idea is known to have existed both in India and Greece at about the
same time, by our present system of dating, it is not possible to know
precisely whether it was of Indian or Greek origin.

‘There is, at present, a broad working outline of Indian history which
has been compiled with the help of foreign sources. Naturally not all
scholars accept its accuracy; Indian scholars generally suggest earlier dates
for Indian works and events than do others. Until this dispute is resolved,
the conservative dates, which are acceptable to those who assign later
dates to Indian historical events, have been used in this study.

The vague usage by authorities of the terms Oriental, Western and
Eastern in relation to cultural influences and concepts, without distinctly
identifying the exact known or accepted area of their origin, presents
no less a problem for the student of comparative culture. For instance,
Iranian, Egyptian, Jewish, Chinese and Indian are often grouped under
ae term Oriental or Eastern and all Greek and Roman heritage as

estern.

This work, I am aware, should have included many more illustrations
than it does, but the consideration of cost a:

restrictions. Sometimes the difficulties
also narrowed the choice.

As no single system of transliteration of the non-
recognised as standard, and as my own linguistic equip
to opt for one or the other with conviction and finali

nd space imposed severe
of reproduction and copyright

English names is
ment is too limited
ty, I have tried to use

xviii

FOREWORD

such versions of these names as are commonly used in modern standard
writings, aiming at internal consistency and uniformity.

Because of the variety and technicality of the subject matter, the
problem of detailed editing, despite the extreme care taken both by the
author and the publishers, has presented numerous questions, some of
_ which may not have been adequately resolved.

My debt of gratitude to numerous authorities, scholars, friends and
colleagues is endless. Even if I tried I could not acknowledge by name
my indebtedness to the authorities whose writings gave me inspiration,
direction and support. Perhaps all historians face in some measure such .
a predicament. Without the contributions of many scholars upon whom
I have drawn freely this work could never have been written. My friends
and colleagues have been most generous in their help through discussion,
encouragement and criticism. Again, it would be impossible to identify
my debt to each of them individually. How does one trace the origins
of ideas acquired consciously or unconsciously through reading, and
discussions with colleagues or students?

I am particularly grateful to Professors K. A. Nilakanta Sastri and A.
L. Basham who read through the whole manuscript with extreme care
and patience and made numerous suggestions and criticisms without
which the value of the work would have been considerably less. Whilst
I have profitted a great deal by their most valuable comments, I alone
am responsible for the opinions expressed.

I must also acknowledge my gratitude to Mrs. Mariel Tisdell (neé
Eckermann) who helped me with research in a variety of ways and did
many long and tedious translations from European languages, especially
German. My thanks are due to Professor Namik Oguztéreli, Dr. Paul
Crook, Mr. John Harris, Mr. Clayton Bredt, Dr. Chris Penders, Dr.
Sutjipto Wirjosuparto, Mr. Larry Sitsky, and Mr. Wei Ying Wan for
reading various parts of the work and commenting upon them, to Mr.
Barry Scott for helping me in compiling the bibliography, and to Mrs.
Magda Sitsky, Miss Maria Chodzinski and Miss Mary Jane Emerson
for typing the various drafts.

I would like to record my thanks to the University of Queensland
for providing facilities for research and assistance with grants for travel
and collection of material, and to the Social Science Research Council

xix

FOREWORD

of Australia for assisting me with a grant to visit India on a study trip.
Ofall the University authorities, I am most appreciative of the help and
encouragement generously given to me by Professor Gordon Greenwood.
Finally, I would-like to thank Miss Cheryl Malmborg for her industry
and help in preparing the indexes.

Despite the wealth of scholarship available to me, this work suffers
from various limitations because of my own incapacity to profit more

by it.

D.P.S.

XX

Chapter I
HARAPPA TO ATHENS

MAN IS MUCH older than civilization. The written records forming the
basis of history reveal only a fraction of our past, a fraction which is at
best fragmentary and at worst chaotic. However, with the help of the
relatively recent discipline of archaeology, the vista of history has been
extended from about five thousand to almost a quarter of a million years,
thus enabling the various pieces of the jig-saw puzzle of culture to fall into
a somewhat more coherent pattern, even though many lu¢ge sections of
the puzzle remain missing. For thousands of years man lived as any other
animal did. But, although one of the weakest of all animals, man alone
was capable of adapting himself to his environment and of moulding it
to suit his requirements. In many areas, including Europe, he merely
adjusted his habits to natural conditions, i- others he attacked nature.
Consequently, by the seventh millennium B.c., man had begun to settle
along areas watered by rainfall, rivers that did not freeze over, and inland
lakes. He began cultivating the land and raising domestic animals whilst
living in relative harmony with his kind.

‘The first signs of civilization emerged in the territories stretching west-
ward from the Indus Valley to the Atlantic across western Asia, along
the North African shore, and eastward to the Yangtze Valley.’ In these
areas well-organized village life soon developed. Improved agricultural
techniques and growing stability led to a closer social organization in
which each individual surrendered part of his freedom for the collective
gain. As time passed large cities emerged with all the complexities of

1

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

urban civilization. The earliest known civilizations were founded almost
contemporaneously in India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.

In spite of the paucity of evidence, there is enough to suggest that
mankind has always pooled its knowledge and that even at the dawn
of civilization there was regular contact between societies and frequent
exchange of ideas and artistic techniques. Indeed, the speed of cultural
evolution has been so extraordinarily rapid, when compared with the
organic evolution of man, that it “seems to be due to the distinctively
human capacity of learning from one’s neighbour; inventions and devices,
created by one society as adjustments to its special environment, can be
adopted by another to its rather different requirements.” It is, therefore,
not surprising that Indian contact with other civilizations should be as
old as history itself.

Whilst other ancient civilizations have long ceased to exist, Indian
civilization has continued to grow despite revolutionary changes. The
ancient cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia have not survived
and their present cultures no longer form an unbroken chain linking past
with present. Modern Egyptians, for example, are almost completely
dissociated from the civilization which flourished on the Nile thousands
of years ago. But in India today, Hindus seek inspiration from concepts
similar to those originally advanced by their ancestors. Social institutions
and relationships, language and literature, are far more continuous than
even those of Greece and Italy. The antiquity of Indian civilization may
in itself be a doubtful virtue, but the fact that it has survived would imply
lp eee
this innate vitality, the continui ofl ae re es ee
due to its ability to adapt to si ee eee = a
and assimilate new ideas. No coun ie ee SE eae
occupied by foreigners, yet, in ee on 5 oe ae eS es
more extensively than that of India? iar cae OS oe
Position in the cultures of the world Thain ha oe mode a
a E , as contributed enormously
dimes Tam mn atenn world date back to prehistoric
developed into cultural relations This eae ONS rag

- 1s not only amply supported

2

i
i

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

by both philological and archaeological evidence, but by a vast body of
corroborative literary evidence as well: vedic literature and the Jatakas,
Jewish chronicles, and the accounts of Greek historians all suggest contact
between India and the West.

It is only during the past few decades that the prehistory of Asia has
come to be studied seriously. The skeletal evidence of the archaeological
excavations made thus far reveals that the earliest traces of farming
communities in the Indian sub-continent are to be found in the area
contiguous to Sind, on the western bank of the lower reaches of the
Indus River. The region is arid at present but there are indications—for
example, stone-built dams erected to control floods—of greater rainfalls
in the third millennium B.c. and of a jungle fauna including tigers,
elephants, and rhinoceroses. Several distinct varieties of wheel-turned
pottery—differing in colour and the character of painted designs—have
been found in the region. Too little is known about these antecedent
stages of human settlement in the Indus Valley from which emerged
the earliest known civilization of India: the Harappan civilization which
flourished around 2500 z.c. In this period great cities existed with well-
planned houses (equipped with baths, chutes, sanitary arrangements),
citadels, communal granaries, highly developed drainage systems and
dockyards. There was an organized city government and a settled society.
‘This advanced urban civilization represented an exceptional adjustment
of human life to a specific environment.

Whilst the exact area and period of the Harappan or Indus civilization
have yet to be firmly fixed, it is now accepted that it extended east
and southward far beyond the Indus Valley and that it was certainly
contemporary with the other earliest-known civilizations: Egypt and
Mesopotamia where two non-Aryan races, the Sumerians and Semites,
created amazing civilizations. Geographically, the Harappan civilization
was probably twice the size of the old kingdom of Egypt and four
times the size of Sumer and Akkad. The main settlements of Harappa,
Mohenjo-daro, and Lothal are considerable distances from each other.
Mohenjo-daro on the lower Indus River and Harappa on the Ravi
River were separated by over three hundred and fifty miles. The smaller
township trading centres and farming communities occupied a much
More extensive area. Archaeological excavations of the last decade have

3

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

resulted in a considerable extension of what were formerly believed to
be the boundaries of the Harappan civilization to now include areas of
Uttar Pradesh, north Rajasthan, and Gujarat. The Harappan civilization,
therefore, occupied an area of approximately 840,000 square miles,
stretching almost from Delhi to Bombay.*

Although these ancient civilizations were largely independent entities,
the fact that direct contacts between them existed is supported by concrete
evidence, mainly in the form of small objects of value. A number of seals
of Indus Valley design and workmanship have been found at various
sites in the Euphrates and Tigris areas. Close scrutiny of the seals found
in Mesopotamia and a comparison with seals from various regions of
western Asia positively indicate that they were either manufactured in the
Indus cities or were close copies of Indus types.‘ The form of writing used
in the Indus Valley, still to be deciphered, resembles in many respects
those used in Sumer and Egypt. This script is pictographic in character
and, insofar as it has survived, is almost exclusively engraved on seals in
the form of texts, some of which are accompanied by pictures of animals.
‘The paucity of the known inscriptions, the absence of long texts in Indus
characters, and the variety and multiplicity of the signs employed have
made decipherment impossible so far, although several scholars claim to
have discovered a clue to the Indus script. Hopefully more knowledge
of the cultural and commercial intercourse between these civilizations
will be available once these seals are adequately deciphered. However, it

is not unlikely that the seals may be found to contain nothin
importance.

g of great

ifferences in arrangement between

the two groups of seals? The Easter Island tablets have a boustrophedon

4

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

arrangement—the alternate rows are upside down—which has not been
discovered in the Indus seals so far. Furthermore, the Easter Island tablets
are made of local or drift wood. Still, the parallel characters are close
enough to suggest contact.

Evidence of Indian contact with the ancient civilizations to her
west, however, is certain. Knobbed pottery vases came to Sumer from
India and so did cotton. The historical origins of cotton are somewhat
uncertain, but the antiquity of the Indian cotton trade is undoubted.
In the Akkadian tongue, Indian cotton was expressed by ideographs
meaning “vegetable cloth.” Assurbanipal (668-626 s.c.) cultivated Indian
plants including the “wool-bearing trees” of India. When the Greeks first
saw Indians. the latter were dressed in “wool grown on trees.” Herodotus
mentions Indian cotton, and the first account of cotton grown outside
the western boundaries of India was given in 350 B.c. by Theophrastus,
who described the “wool-bearing trees” of Tylee (Bahrein), stating
that cotton was cultivated in India as well. When perennial cotton
plants—originally native only to India—were first grown in western Asia
is a matter of conjecture, but “since there is known to have been contact
between Mohenjo-daro and contemporary civilizations in Babylonia, it
seems likely that the cottons of the Indus Valley were distributed along
the Persian coast and as far up the Persian Gulf as perennials could be
successfully grown.””

Commercial intercourse between the Indus and the Tigris-Euphrates
civilizations is also demonstrated by the Harappan manufactures found
in Mesopotamia. Semi-precious stones, such as amazonite, came from
Gujarat or even the Nilgiri Hills; food stuffs and metal from Rajasthan
or Baluchistan: and shank shell from southern India. All these reached
Mesopotamia during ‘the last half of the third millennium s.c. Indeed, a *
colony of Indus merchants may well have settled in a Sumerian city. On
the other hand, a white marble seal, an adze, pottery rings, and horned
figures are some of the items imported from Sumer into the Indus region.
Furthermore, some of the numerous naturalistic figurines of baked clay
found in Indus cities depict persons of distinctly Mongolian features.
Archaeological researchers have also brought to light Indus remains,
belonging to 2000 8.c.—1000 s.c., in Southern Turkmenia in Soviet
Central Asia.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

In southern Afghanistan, French excavators have discovered remains
of huge granaries, akin to those of Harappa, and a great mud-brick
building belonging to the third millennium B.C., with a facade of half-
columns suggestive of Mesopotamia. The full implications of these
remains, insofar as they throw light on international contact, have yet
to be properly assessed, but their discovery has led Sir Leonard Woolley
to suggest, as an explanation of the similarities between the Indus and
Sumerian civilizations, that the people of Surner were newcomers from
the East who had brought their arts and crafts with them, and that both
peoples probably had a common origin.’

Indirect contact between ancient India and Egypt through
Mesopotamia is generally admitted, but evidence of a direct relationship
between the two is at best fragmentary and inconclusive. There are
elements in the folk art, language, and rural culture of Bengal which
have an affinity with their Egyptian counterparts and which have not
been explained satisfactorily in terms of Aryan, Mongolian, or Dravidian
influences. There are also similarities between place names in Bengal and
Egypt,’ and recently an Egyptian scholar, El Mansouri, has pointed out
that in both Egypt and India the worship of cow, sun, snake, and river
was common. These and other resemblances—such as a likeness between
certain pottery ornaments of Mohenjo-daro and those of Egypt, between
the Indus script and the Elamite script, between the caste system of India

and a similar classification in ancient Egypt—are attributed to “ties of
common Dravidian and Aryan blood.” Further
Siva, Visnu, and Brahman, are likened to
Iswara to Osiris; Nandi to Apis; and Hanuman to Cynocephalus. Both
in India and Egypt the lotus flo

wer, too, was held sacred.

Of all the Egyptian objects and motifs indicating some contact
between India and Egypt during the Indus Valley period, “the cord
pattern occurring in a copper tablet in the Indus Valley and on three
Egyptian seals is the most striking link between the two countries.”"
Indian products were certainly known since indigo, muslin and tamarind
for example, have been found in Egyptian tombs, and ebony. as
sandalwood, and cotton goods reached Egypt from India in the eae
millennium B.c.

more, the Indian gods,

the solar gods of Egypt; as are

ee ee ee a

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

Whether direct or through Mesopotamia, there is “concrete evidence
of a network of trade linking up the whole area from the Tigris to the
Indus and the Oxus and its extension west of the Euphrates as far as
the Nile.”!! International trade on such a scale presupposes efficient
organization and attractive profits. Trade was mainly overland, but
the discovery of Indus-like seals in Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, the
dockyard at Lothal in Gujarat, and a steatite seal at Lothal with two
jumping gazelles flanking a two-headed dragon suggest that maritime
trade existed as well. Flourishing commercial traffic naturally involved
the movement of people. Skilled artisans travelled freely and settled
wherever they found a demand for their skills. Agencies and depots
must have been established for the collection and storage of freight and
cargo. Trade always encourages the pooling of human experience and in
the ancient world it was perhaps a more potent agency in the diffusion
of culture than it is today. City life, cultivation of cereals, domestication
of cattle and sheep, metallurgy, a textile industry, the manufacture of
bricks and pots, and the drilling of hard stones for beads were some of
the common features of these early civilizations. It cannot be stated with
any certainty where these inventions originated, but their dissemination
must have been due to mutual borrowing.

‘The Oriental Institute near Baghdad excavated at Tell Agrab a green
steatite vase of typical Sumerian workmanship, portraying a humped bull
in front of a manger. As the vase depicts a characteristic scene of an Indus
cult, it is clear that by the middle of the third millennium 8.c., an Indian
cult was already being practiced in Mesopotamia. As in modern times,
ancient foreigners demanded the comforts of their religion in a strange
country, and this led to the transmission of cults and general religious
dissemination. Since Indus manufactures were imported to Sumer and
Akkad, and Indus cults were certainly known and possibly celebrated
there, the Indus culture must have made contributions, however slight or
obscure, to the traditions inherited by Europe from Sumer and Babylonia.
Archaeology thus has shown that two thousand years before the earliest
references in cuneiform texts to contact with India, she was sending her
manufactures to the land where the roots of Western civilization lie. “In
other words,” as Gordon Childe puts it, “in the third millennium B.c.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

India was already in a position to contribute to the building up of the
cultural tradition that constitutes our spiritual heritage as she notoriously
has done since the time of Alexander.””

In both western Asia and the Indus Valley men wore a long beard,
shaved their upper lip, and kept their hair very long. The swastika and
cross were their religious and magical symbols. The demonolatry of
Babylonia with its malignant serpents came to be known in India, and
their Babylonian names are preserved in the Atharva Veda. The serpent
Taimata against whom the Atharva Veda prescribes a charm, and who
bears a non-Sanskrit name, appears to resemble closely the Assyrian
dragon Tiamat. Both in India and Babylonia, physical and mental
abnormalities were attributed to demons, and in both regions several
powerful demons were believed to cause certain cosmic disturbances.
Also fire was the messenger between gods and men in Babylonia as in
India. Amongst the other striking similarities between the two cultures
are the organization of society into cities; the use of picture signs for
writing; and the continued but sparing use of stone, along with copper
and bronze, for the manufacture of weapons, tools, and vessels.

Despite these similarities, the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus
civilizations undeniably developed in their own independent ways
and assumed distinct personalities. Their tools, weapons, and vessels
have different forms, and the symbols of their scripts differ. The Indus
civilization itself was thoroughly individual, deeply rooted in Indian soil,
and was already forming the basis of modern Indian culture.
a ere
empires which dominated aaa i k a 5 aT
nae a ee a t about the same time the
millennium 8.c. the continuous ae sae a pee
allivial vall ation extended from the

- vaucys to cover most of western Asia and India with an outpost

as far distant as China. The political history of Meso es 3
potamia, however, for
z two thousand years before it came under Persian domination, is fall of
cae fe concerning Indian contacts with the West
j ndus, period is not precise, although documents

from Babylonia and Asia Minor testify to some interchange. Recently, in
the Babylonian texts of the kings of Akkad and in lexical t i

exts, Leemans
8

a E T ET FAAS AAEE S

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

has identified two names, Magan or Makkan and Meluhha, with Makran
in Baluchistan and with western India respectively.'* The names of kings
recorded in the Kassite documents (ca. 1760-1600 s.c.) recall Indo-
Aryan deities. It was the Kassites who introduced into Babylonia the
use of the horse for drawing chariots, and the late Babylonian name for
a horse, Susu, seems to be derived from the Sanskrit asva. The Kassites,
who ruled for several centuries after 1800 B.c., and who were probably
not entirely of Indo-European stock, appear to have borrowed some of
their gods from the Aryans, for example Surias (Sanskrit Surya, sun god),
Maruttas (Sanskrit Marui, wind god), Bugas (Sanskrit Bhaga), Simalia
(Sanskrit Himalaya), Dakas (Sanskrit Daksa, a star god).

The kings of Mittani on the Upper Euphrates, of the fifteenth or
sixteenth century B.C., frequently bore Aryan names, such as Artatama,
Sutarna, and Dusratta, and they worshipped the vedic gods, Mitra,
Varuna (u-ru-v-na), /ndra (in-da-ra), and the twins Nasatya (na-sa-at-ti-
i-ia ) , an alternative name for the Asvins, all of whose names are found
in their cuneiform inscriptions. In 1907 Hugo Winckler startled the
academic world by identifying four of the numerous gods mentioned in
a treaty signed between the kings of Mittani and the Hittites in 1360
B.C. with those already known in vedic literature.

A fragmentary handbook on chariot racing found in the documents
at Boghaz Koi, the Hittite capital in Asia Minor, further endorses the
Indo-Europeans’ common cultural heritage. Many of the technical terms
used for so many circuits of the course are very close to Sanskrit. For
example, aikauartanna, teravartanna, panzavartanna, shauaoartanna, are
used for one, three, five, and seven laps of the race. In Sanskrit wartanam
means a turning. In discussing the Hittite deities, the Bull god and the
Mother goddess, Garstang is most arrested by “the obvious parallelism
with the symbolism and the ritual of the Indian god Siva, a result for
which, however surprising, we are prepared by the inclusion of Mitra,
Varuna , and Indra among the deities of Mittani.”° The Marianna
class of warriors among the Mittani is reminiscent of the vedic Marya,
“the heroes.” Numerals and other words of Aryan origin have also
been identified in Mittanic texts. During the same period the Tell-el-
Amarna tablets mention Aryan princes, such as Biridaswa of Yenoam
and Suwardata of Keilah, in Syria and Palestine. The language of the

9

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Mittanis was not Indo-European, and although the Anatolian Hittites
were mainly of Indo-European stock, having emigrated from the Araxes
Valley sometime in the third millennium B.C., their subjects were non-
Aryan Asians and it was the native language, the Babylonian script,
and the local gods which the Hittites adopted. The numerals and divine
and personal names referred to are actually the oldest specimens of any
Aryan speech known to scholars and, significantly, they are in this form
very nearly pure Indian, being much more akin to Sanskrit than to any
Iranian dialects.”

The Phoenicians of the Levant, important in the ancient world as
traders, explorers, and craftsmen, were also in contact with India.'* The
Phoenicians were immigrants to Syria from the Persian Gulf. They set up
harbour towns and guarded them jealously throughout their history. The
Phoenicians were possibly the most adventurous and skilled tradesmen of
the ancient world, and their trade with India was profitable and lucrative.
Although their territory was neither large nor fertile, their commerce
made them rich and powerful. According to Jewish chronicles, as early
as 975 8.c., Hiram, the King of Tyre, acting jointly with Solomon
of Judah, demanded triennially a fleet to bring ivory, apes, peacocks,
almug or algum trees, and precious stones from the port of Ophir. This

may have been a port on the western Indian coast—there continues to

be much speculation about its location—as the objects imported were
unmistakably of Indian origin. Ophir was so famous for its gold that the
expression “gold of Ophir” became proverbial in Hebrew.

The sources for ivory in ancient tim

es were Syria, the Sudan,
Somaliland, and India. The Phoenicians, who first seem to have imported
it from Syria,

found this source exhausted by the ei

y the eighth century s.c. It
was then that they turned their attention to India as a fresh source of
supply and organized expeditions for that purpose.” Logs of Indian teak

nee found in the Temple of the Moon at Mugheir built during
the sixth century B.C. under the Chaldean Emp; i
Nebuchadnezzar (604-562 B ees ee

.C.), who raised Babylonia to a new epoch
of greatness. In addition to ivory, the Indians also exported at this time
various kinds of birds and beasts (including the valuable Sind horses)

cotton goods, gold, silver, and jewels. The Arab traders originally brou ht
Tice to Europe from the south Indian ports. Other Indian oe. as

10

WRI a AA

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

the West from these ports at different times included cinnamon, ginger,
pepper, and beryl.

Some of the articles of commerce mentioned in the Jewish annals bear
names of Indian origin. For instance, Kophu (ape) in Hebrew. is kapi in
Sanskrit: e/eph (ivory) in Hebrew, is iba in Sanskrit; and the Hebrew
almug (sandalwood) is probably from the Sanskrit valeu. In tracing
similarities in literature, scholars, moreover, have noted the curious
resemblance between the Maha-Ummagga Jataka” and the story of the
judgement of Solomon.

During the reign of Solomon (973-933 B.C.) the position of Palestine,
situated in easily accessible proximity to India, western Asia, and Africa,
became much clearer than before. Solomon’s father, David, during his
campaigns, had occupied Ezion-Gaber on the Gulf of Akabah. Solomon
retained this position because Ezion-Gaber, or the neighbouring port
of Elath, was the point of embarkation for India and the Far East, and
“he who possessed it and Palestine commanded the bridge which joined
three continents.””! After the death of Solomon, the Persian Gulf became
the chief trade route between India and Asia Minor.

The recent finding in 1963 of a round stone-seal from Pandu Rajar
Dhibi in Bengal and the identification of its script and pictographs with
the Phaistos pictographs and “Linear A” scripts point to the possibility
that the Indians of Bengal were in trading contact with the inhabitants
of Crete during the second half of the second millennium 8.c.”

‘There is considerable evidence to suggest that the ancient Indians were
accomplished sailors and enterprising merchants. Allusions to Indian
ships and seafaring activities in the vedic and Buddhist literatures are
numerous and extensive. The Baveru Jataka” describes periodic voyages
of Indian merchants to the kingdom of Baveru. Scholars equate this
kingdom with Babylon, which had become a commercial metropolis
after the overthrow of the Assyrian Empire in 606 s.c. The crowded
marketplaces of Babylon were filled with merchants from distant
lands—Phoenicians, Ionians, and Indians amongst them. References to
ships holding seven hundred people are found in Jataka stories. These
stories may exaggerate but there is no doubt that Indian seamen built
ships larger than those usually employed, even at a much later date, in
the Mediterranean.

11

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Assyrian and Babylonian influence on India during the prehistoric and
early historic periods must have been significant, although the nature and
extent of this influence are very obscure. Bühler suggests that the Brahmi
script used in Asokan inscriptions—the parent stock from which all
Indian alphabets have been derived—was borrowed from Semitic sources,
probably in the seventh century B.C. Other scholars, such as Rawlinson,
find Bihler’s arguments somewhat unsatisfactory. It has been generally
held that the Brahmi script was derived from a foreign source, although
there are wide disagreements as to the identity of that source. Since the
discovery of the seals at Mohenjo-daro, however, scholars have begun
speculating on the possibility that this alphabet may have developed from
an earlier ideographic form of writing used in the Indus Valley itself.
‘Therefore, judgement must be suspended until the writing is deciphered.
Excavations in the Indus Valley have already led to a revision of the earlier
view that Indian art had originated from a foreign source not much earlier
than the third century B.c., and additional investigation may well lead to
further reconsiderations. The influence, too, of Babylonian mythology
on Indian literature, and of Chaldean astronomy on Indian scientific

thought, has been suggested and disputed.”

‘The second stage of civilization in India began around 1500 s.c. with
the coming of the Aryans who brought a civilization very different from
that of the Indus. Still semi-nomadic, the Aryans were mainly occupied
with war and cattle-raising and only secondarily with agriculture. The
exact location of their origins has been a debatable point in history,
sometimes vitiated by nationalistic feeling. Various theories, claiming
north, central, or southeast European,
oe ope cae even hold that not only did they originate in India
k a eae preceded the Indus civilization. Most
main aa that the ee See eer calarchaeloey,
somewhere in C eee 2 Inde: European peoples, originated

n Central Asia or south Russia. It appears that around 2000

B.C. there existed at least a loose confederacy of tribes
>

south Russia to Turkistan, who shared certain elemen
culture and who spoke closely related dialects within the
linguistic framework. Near the beginning of the second

these Indo-European peoples began to march out of the

or Asian origin, have been put

stretching from
ts of a common
Indo-European
millennium B.C.
ir ancestral home
12

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

in successive waves towards Europe and India. They reached India around
1500 s.c. Some historians believe they then destroyed the Indus Valley
civilization, but evidence for this belief is inconclusive, and it appears to
be a bold suggestion by Mortimer Wheeler.”

Thus began the period of the Rig Veda, one of the oldest and noblest
books of mankind. Rabindranath Tagore has described the Rig Veda as “a
poetic testament of a people’s collective reaction to the wonder and awe
of existence.” In some ways a curious document, it is undoubtedly the
earliest monument of Indo-European language, thought, and literature,
and reveals a very high level of civilization, even though the Aryans were
unfamiliar with the art of writing and possibly did not have a centralized
and organized form of government. The Rig Veda represents the earliest
developed phase of the evolution of religious consciousness and man’s
response to the immensity of the universe and the inexhaustible mystery
of life.” The vedic culture, originally foreign to the country, gradually
adapted itself to the Indian environment greatly changing its own
religious, ethical, and economic content and at the same time permeating
deeply into Indian life, thought, and society. Indeed, it is this blending
which forms the basis of Indian culture.

At about the time the Hittites emerged in Anatolia the Aryans
were spreading into northwest India. They probably proceeded in two
directions in successive waves—westward and eastward. The Celts, the
Greeks, and the Germans are the descendants of the former branch whilst
the Indians and the Iranians are descendants of the latter. There are close
resemblances between the language, mythology, religious traditions, and
social institutions of Indians and Iranians on the one hand, and those of
the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Germans, and Slavs on the other. The theory
that the Indo-Europeans were one people is mainly based on linguistic
evidence, which has been successfully tested against archaeological studies
in western Asia and eastern Europe. Even if they began as one people
ethnologically, the complexity of the anthropological evidence suggests
that many native groups mixed with them in the various lands where they
settled and that they adopted many of the features of the local Se
including the language.

The Indo-European group of languages—formerly known as the sana
or Indo-Germanic group—includes most of the languages of Europe,

13

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

North America, and India. Despite certain anomalies, the linguistic
resemblances between the languages in this group can be presented ina
convincingly systematized form which indicates a common source.” The
grammatical forms and the basic words of the vocabulary, like father and
mother and the numerals, are strikingly identical.”

The eastern branch of the Indo-European movement is often referred
to as the Aryan movement, because the ancient peoples belonging to this
group called themselves Aryas, a word which later acquired the meaning
of “the noble ones.” The Aryans were further subdivided into the
Iranians and the Indians. It is inevitable, therefore, that Indian contacts
with Iran should be the oldest and the most prolonged. These contacts
began in prehistoric times and continued into the Mughal and modern
periods. Situated between the plains of the Euphrates and the Indus,
Iran has occupied from the earliest times a position which made her one
of the principal routes of commerce conquest, and civilization. She has,
through successive periods of history, influenced the culture of both her
eastern and western neighbours, and has provided a bridge between India
and the West. The Persian language, like French in Europe, became
the language of cultured people over wide areas of Asia. Persian was the
court language of mediaeval India and even today is one of the principal
Indian classical languages. Its influence on modern Indian languages is
enormous, and India has produced many excellent Persian scholars, both
Hindu and Muslim.

‘The area lying between modern Iran and India, comprising parts of
West Pakistan and Afghanistan, was culturally and, at times, politically

a part of India. Until the rise of Islam this area was under the influence

of Hinduism and Buddhism. Afghanistan was an integral part of the

Mauryan kingdom (325-185 s.c.) and later of the Mughal Empire, and
many Afghan rulers, including the Turki-Afghans, ruled over Indian

eee eee there are many cultural similarities between
naian and Afghani peoples. Further ini

j . more, both in it and

grammatical structure, ; Sew

Afghani is very close to Sanskrit
Even during pre-

Aryan days, contact existed b eel

Tran. This is indi A ed between India an
pottery eeo such evidence as the parallels between the
© countries and finds of identical objects in both

countries. But close resemblances between Indian and Iranian culture

14

Pe ee ee

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

date from the days of their common Indo-Aryan origin. It seems most
likely that the Indians and the Iranians lived together for some time,
perhaps on the Iranian Plateau, before the Indian group moved into
India. It is, however, surprising that the cultural link between pre-Aryan
India and Iran should have been severed, rather than strengthened, as a
result of the migrations of the Aryans into India through Iran.™!

Although evidence of continued contact between the vedic Indians and
the Iranians is not explicit, there is no doubt that the vedic religion has
much in common with Zoroastrianism, and that vedic Sanskrit closely
resembles the language of the Avesta. The Iranian god Mithra, who
centuries later found his way into the Roman world and became a popular
sun god of the Roman troops, and the vedic Mitra were undoubtedly
originally identical. He is invoked as god of light in both religions
together with the god of heaven, who is called Varuna in the Vedas and
Ahura in the Avesta. The beginnings of Zoroastrianism, however, mark a
dividing line between the vedic and Iranian Aryans. In the Avesta many of
the vedic deities became devils,*? whilst on the other hand, Ahura, asura,
came to mean “demon” in the Vedas. By changing the relative statures
of the gods, Zoroaster endeavoured to convert the old polytheism into
a spiritual monotheism. Varuna was raised to a position of supremacy,
having been invested with the sublime majesty of the guardian of the
cosmic order (Old Persian Asa or Sanskrit Rza) and Indra was relegated
to the armies of evil against whom the righteous man must fight on the
side of Ahura Mazda.* Zoroastrianism was almost contemporary with
Buddhism, and it is significant that both religions were a protest against
the archaic practices of the old Aryan religions.

India was closely allied to Iran in commerce, and indeed through Iran
to the areas further west. This commercial contact between India and
the West was an important feature of the ancient period and continued
unbroken until the decline of the Roman Empire. Merchandise, although
it travelled from India to Europe, changed hands at various prominent
emporia and was bartered many times in transit. Trade was brisk, and
was conducted over both land and sea routes.

‘The existing overland trade route to the West, largely unheard of
before the time of Darius, probably because of the dangers of the journey,
lay through northwestern India to the Khyber Pass and thence across the

15

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Hindu-Kush to Balkh which stood on the silk route, the main highway
linking East and West. Through this route India had connections with
Iran, Greece, Rome, Central Asia, and China. Several routes ran from
Balkh to Central Asia and China, as well as two routes to the West. One
western route crossed the Oxus River (Amu Darya) to the Caspian Sea
and then to the Euxine (the Black Sea); the other, entirely by land, lay
above the border of the Karmanian Desert to the north, passed through
the Caspian Gates and reached Antioch (now Antakya in Turkey) by
way of Hecatompylos. Another important route, probably the oldest
and easiest, was through the Persian Gulf, from the mouth of the Indus
River along the coast to the mouth of the Euphrates River. ‘The ships
then proceeded up the Euphrates and joined the overland route at
Seleucia which connected Antioch and the Levantine ports.** Another
sea route, somewhat circuitous, followed the Persian and Arabian coasts
to Aden and then to Suez through the Red Sea. From Suez the goods
were carried overland either to Egypt or to Mediterranean ports, such
as Tyre and Sidon.

Although a very strong probability of constant communication by
land and sea between India and western Asia is clearly indicated, real
evidence of political and cultural intercourse emerges only with the rise
of the Achaemenians in the sixth century B.C. after the overthrow of
Babylon, the last of the great Semitic empires of western Asia, by Cyrus
(559-530 B.c.) who laid the foundations of a vast Persian Empire. This
event marked a major advance in the history of Iran, and in fact in the
history of the world, for the Achaemenians conceived Iran as a state
e it a reality. An extensive Persian empire emerged through a

onquests stretching from the Indus to the Aegean. It included

the ancient kingdom of Egypt, Sind and Western Punjab in India and
some Greek city states in Ionia. Darius (521-486 s.c.)

Empire, throughout the length and breadth of which
punctuated by imperial military posts.?5

This great and powerful Empire lasted until it was demolished by
Alexander in 331 B.c. It is not known exactly how far Persian powet
extended, but it is said that the Indian Province was the twentieth and
the richest satrapy added to the Persian Empire. Herodotus tells us of
the wealth and density of the population of India, and that it paid 360

reorganized the
ran good roads

16

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

talents of gold dust to Persia per year as tribute, an amount which was
almost one-third of the revenue of Darius’ whole Empire.*° There is no
doubt that Darius, who according to Herodotus was called a merchant
by his subjects, and his successors were not satisfied with the existing
trade and sought its extension. They wished for oceanic trade with direct
contact between India and Egypt, and a direct sea route around Arabia
to Africa, through the Red Sea, and thence by some sort of a canal to
the Mediterranean.

During the early period of the Mauryan administration, palace
organization, court etiquette and deportment were still greatly influenced
by Persian ideas and models. Even the Mauryan idea of empire was
perhaps inspired by the Iranian example. The imperialism of the Maurya
monarchy, especially of Asoka, was a synthesis of Indian, Achaemenian,
and Hellenistic ideas.” The Maurya Empire was conterminous with
the Seleucid Empire of Syria and Iran, because it included within its
boundaries parts of modern Afghanistan and Baluchistan which belonged
physically to the Iranian Plateau.

The Indian national emblem which contains four lions and a wheel
borrowed from the Sarnath pillar of Asoka, is faintly reminiscent
of Assyro-Persian prototypes, although clearly modified by Indian
sentiment; the dharmachakra (the wheel of the law) is, however, also a
symbol of the Buddhist faith. As examples of ancient animal sculpture,
Asoka’s pillars, combining realistic modelling with idealistic dignity and
finished in every detail with perfect accuracy, are hardly surpassed in any
country or, indeed, in later Indian art.’

The use of stone for columns and statues during the Mauryan
period instead of ivory, wood, or clay, is also attributed to Graeco-
Persian influence. Some scholars have noticed Iranian influence on
Chandragupta’s system of communications and in Asoka’s practice of
inscribing rocks and columns, although Asoka’s use of such inscriptions
to promulgate edicts was profoundly original. Through these edicts he
spread the simple and human teaching of the Buddha and prenne that
true conquest was the conquest of self and tbe conquest of men’s hearts
through dharma.

Indian punch-marked silver coinage was on a Persian standard, and the
Kharoshthi script was derived from Aramaic, used by the Achaemenians

17

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in their official documents.” This Kharoshthi script remained in use in

the northwestern region of India until the fourth century. The origin of

Mauryan court art, however, is a subject of keen contoan although
general opinion appears to favour some Iranian inspiration. Havell,
for instance, pointing out that symbolism in Indian art is thoroughly
characteristic of Indo-Aryan thought, attributes the resemblances
between early Indian and Iranian art to these peoples’ common racial
origin and imaginative heritage." Certainly, differences of form and type
separate the Mauryan columns from those of Achaemenian Iran.”

The modern term Hindu, by which the majority of the Indians are
now known, is of Persian origin. Indians were known to Persians as the
inhabitants of the land of Sindhu, the Indus River. The Persians softened
the initial S to H, thus making it Hindu, a name which has survived and
come to be applied in a much wider and more complex sense. The Ionian
Greeks, who came to know of India through the Persians, transformed
the word into Indus (Ivõúós), and the land of Indus came to be known
as India.”

Iranian political contact affected India in another important way
during this period. India’s relationship with the Western world from
this time on became increasingly political as Persia provided a common
meeting-ground for Greek and Indian merchants, warriors, scholars, and
travellers. Perhaps at no other period in early history was communication
by land more open, or conditions more favourable for the interchange of
ideas between India and the West.

It was during this period (ca. 510 B.C.) that the first Greek, Scylax
of Caryanda, is known to have visited India.“ A mercenary sea captain,
he was sent by Darius to explore India beyond the Indus, to trace the
river oe to its mouth, and then to sail back to Persia examining the
Se eee
Nae ati tac : e first Greek known to have visited
probably Scylax’s account Stes aoe ee a
basis of Herodotus’ narrative of India. ee Bee oe e Ene a
full of inaccuracies and is hardly fre ae i E ae

an a medley of travellers’ tales.

Hecataeus of Miletus, a contemporary of Scylax and the father of Greek
geography, was the first Greek to mention India, having also gathered

18

ENE TA AOIS

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

his information most probably from Scylax’s account. Hecataeus’ work,
too, is unfortunately lost.

Another Greek account of India, Indika, was partially preserved in
the Library of Photius (ninth century). Ctesias (ca. 400 B.c.), the author,
lived at the Persian court for seventeen years as a royal physician, but
in spite of his excellent opportunities for acquiring knowledge about
India, he packed his narrative with deliberate lies.* The unreliability of
Ctesias’ information has seldom been disputed. In a recent study, A.
R. Burn reaffirms this opinion of Ctesias, describing him “as reckless
of truth and concerned only to make an impression; and even when he
does tell us a detail which might be true, it is always well to remember
the Martichora.”*”

Indian soldiers, clad in cotton garments and equipped with bows and
arrows of cane, formed part of the Persian army which fought heroically
against the Greeks under Xerxes (468-465 B.c.). India also supplied
Persia with chariots and horses, and an Indian contingent formed a part
of Darius III’s forces which fought Alexander at the historical Gaugamela
battle in 331 B.c. These are the earliest known instances of Greeks and
Indians facing each other in large numbers.

Although parts of India and Greece were joined in the same state,
being the two ends of the Persian Empire, there is a great scarcity of
historical materials which might determine with any degree of certainty
the nature and volume of the cultural intercourse involved, especially
before the campaigns of Alexander. This was the time of the rise of
philosophical reflection in Greece and the revolt against the traditional
Homeric religion. In India, as well, it was the time of the Buddha and
Mahavira who had protested against the finds of the Vedas. Both India
and Greece produced civilizations during this period which were to
determine for generations the habits of thought and ways of life not only
of their own peoples but of many races far beyond their frontiers. The
fact that both India and Greece were going through a phase of spiritual
unrest and intellectual agitation must have increased not only the ease
but the frequency and volume of the exchange of ideas.

In fact, all over the world an unprecedented intellectual revolution was
taking place which was to have a lasting influence on human thought.
Prophets emerged proclaiming revelations from God, and philosophers

19

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

appealed to the inherent reason in man. In the Middle East, a succession
of outspoken Jewish religious and social reformers appeared, commonly
known as “the prophets’”—Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and others. In China,
Confucius taught rational morality and in Iran, Zarathustra (Zoroaster)
endeavoured to purify the prevalent religion of polytheism, ritualism,
and magic.“ It is noteworthy that this widespread intellectual revolution
in the ancient world which was probably the first of its kind in history,
should have been preceded by the rise in India of the Upanishads, whose
authors were also urged on in their quest for reality by their dissatisfaction
with the existing forms of vedic teachings and practices.

During such a period of intense intellectual activity, free contact
between India and Greece may reasonably be assumed to account for
some of the parallels between Indian thought and Greek philosophy.
Ardent classicists dispute the existence of Indian influence as vigorously
as any other influence, because according to some, such as Sir Henry
Maine, no progress at all would have been possible for the Romans, the
Germans, or the English without the Greek heritage.” But there has
been too much inclination among Western writers to idealize the Greeks
and their civilization, and they have tended to discover too much of the
contemporary world in the Greek past. Greek patrimony was claimed
not only in the realm of thought, but in handicrafts, the techniques of
mining, the essentials of engineering, the processes of finance and trade,
political systems, trial by jury, civil liberties, schools and universities,
gymnasia and stadia, games and sports, art and literature, and Christian
ee

eens i: intellectual activity and even faith, modern
snr en neg ly of ee T
of their civilization eee ae ee a he peaa

Modern mah h eee Oe ae z
kniee si oe eee marred this comforting image and is
Mee Gh ee a S proper historical perspective showing

, it inherited some
civilizations, profited from the
turn, bequeathed much to later
as simple,

thing from preceding
Progress of neighbouring cultures and, in
generations. The Greeks are now regarded
i natural, and reasonable people, responding healthily to their
environment. A people of mixed descent, like the rest, the classical

20

IM SISTA

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

Greeks were not pure Hellenes by blood; they were not even a nation. It
was during the Persian wars that the tribes in the various regions around
the Aegean Sea first achieved a kind of national identity against what they
called the “barbaroi.” Driven mainly by the fear of foreigners and the need
to organize a common defence, the various tribes banded together, and, in
this respect, Greek nationalism could be termed a Persian contribution.
Though abundantly patriotic, the Hellenes never desired a Greek nation
common to all. Their patriotism seems to have been mainly confined to
the narrow limits of a particular glen or district, and this is well illustrated
by their regional hatreds. Athenian Greeks disliked Ionian Greeks,
and fought Sparta in disastrous wars; Boeotia hated Attica, and Attica
despised Boeotia as much as it did the Scythians.

It is significant that, although the Indians and the Greeks had come
from the same Indo-European stock, they met as strangers in the
sixth century B.c. Persian Empire. Soon, however, the cousins became
associates in a common cultural enterprise. Similarities in language,
accompanied by similarities in religious beliefs, indicate that these two
peoples must have either been in close contact at some early period or
have had a common origin, even though neither had any recollection
of those times. For example, the gods of heaven (Varuna—Ouranos;
Dyaus—Zeus) and the dawn (Ushas—Aurora) were common to the
Greeks and Indians. The most prominent characteristic of the gods
of both races was their power of regulating the order of nature and
banishing evil. The Olympian religion of the Greeks and vedic beliefs
had a common background. The Greek concept of Jogos was very close to
the vedic Vac, which corresponds to the Latin term Vox. In a passage of
the Rig Veda, Vac is praised as a divine being. Vac is omnipotent, moves
amongst divine beings, and carries the great gods, Mitra, Varuna, Indra,
and Agni, within itself.’ The doctrine of Vac teaches that “all gods live
from Vac, also all demi-gods, animals and people. Vac is the eternal
being, it is the first-born of the eternal law, mother of the Vedas and
navel of immortality.” Vedic Aryans attached such great importance to
the spoken word that one who could not correctly pronounce Sanskrit
was called darbar (meaning stammering). The Greek barbarot had the
Same meaning. ‘There is also a striking similarity between the social life
described in the Homeric poems—the Iliad and the Odyssey—and that

21

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

found in the Vedas.” Homeric gods, like the heroes who believed in
them, often rode in horsedrawn chariots. Horse-chariotry was a feature
of the life of the Indo-European people, and appeared in western Asia
sometime after 2000 B.c. The Homeric idea of a language of the gods is
also found in Sanskrit, Greek, old Norse, and Hittite literatures.” Some
scholars, like Fiske, have even asserted that elements of the Trojan war
story are to be found in the war between the bright deities and the night
demons as described in the Rig Veda.** On the other hand, the Indian
epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, also works of great literary
merit and deep cultural significance, have been said by some scholars,
like Weber to have been inspired by the Homeric poems. Few, however,
hold this view now, and most authorities agree with Winternitz that the
Indian epics have an indigenous tradition of their own. Whilst the artistic
quality and superficial resemblances between these Greek and Indian
works are undoubted, the characters they describe are in every instance
remote, having only a superficial basis in actuality, and the historicity of
the narratives must remain open to doubt.’

Although the ancient Greeks did not possess any real knowledge of
India, from Homer it is clear that even then they used articles of Indian
merchandise which were known by names of Indian origin, such as
Kassiteros (Sanskrit, Kastira), elephas (Sanskrit, ża), and ivory.”

The earliest beginnings of Greek philosophy lie in the Milesian or
Ionian school of the sixth century B.C. Thales of Miletus, regarded as the
father of Greek philosophy, was a merchant of whom little is known.
He was, however, the first philosopher to express his ideas in logical
terms.” He predicted the correct time of an eclipse which occurred
in 585 B.c.—the first fixed date in Greek philosophy and generally

regarded as its starting point. The Ionian philosophers were mainly
seats by later generations as “men of science.” Extremely curious
about the nature of the external world, a cosmos as they called it, the pre-
Socratic Greek thinkers, ‘Thales,

Anaximander, and other Milesians did
not exclude the possibility of a divine agency, oe eee

such an agency differed from the contempor
Tonian philosophers paid no attention at all
ignored the Greek theologia,
had religious ideas and prin

but their conception of
ary Greek polytheism. The
to the Olympian gods and
the stories or legends of the gods. Yet they
ciples, such as the conceptions of Moira and

22

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

Dike—of purity and impurity—and the concept of the universe as an
ordered cosmos and therefore one.” Whilst the idea of cosmic law and
order appears in simple form in Anaximander, Xenophanes clearly sets
forth the concept of a divine intelligence pervading and regulating the
world, and Anaxagoras advances the idea of a world-arranging Mind.
The Milesians also reflected on the question of the one and the many,
and held that all things emanate from a single living substance. They
believed that the world arose out of a primal unity, and that this one
substance was still the permanent base of all its being, although now
appearing in different forms and manifestations.” Before the end of
the century, however, philosophical speculation in Greece underwent a
change of spirit under Pythagoras (532 B.c.) and Greek thought became
essentially mystical.”

By contrast, philosophical thought in India in the sixth century B.c.
had become quite mature. It had reached a stage which could have been
arrived at only after long and arduous philosophical quest. Jainism and
Buddhism, the latter enormously influential in Indian and neighbouring
cultures, had emerged by this time. But even before their advent, the
philosophical reflections of the early Upanishads (900-600 s.c.) had set
forth the fundamental concepts of Hindu thought which have continued
to dominate the Indian mind.

It is perhaps necessary to point out that there has often been a wide
divergence between Indian and Western interpretations of Indian thought.
Coomaraswamy once even declared that a true account of Hinduism may
be given in a categorical denial of most of the interpretations that have
been made by Westerners or Western-trained Indians. For example,
whilst Western scholars have generally suggested that monotheism arose
late in Indian thought, growing out of an earlier polytheism, Indian
scholars have pointed out that there was more polytheism in the later
vedic hymns than in those of the earlier period. Distorted analyses of
Indian thought are, however, rapidly declining both in influence and
frequency and an accepted and more accurate interpretation has begun
to emerge. Certainly, the divergence of opinion has never proceeded
completely along nationalistic lines. In fact, many Western scholars, such
as Guenon, are apt to be too generous and too ready to admit that “the
Position of the West in relation to the East is that of a branch growing

23

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

out of the trunk,”® or like Evans-Wentz, who declares: “Today as it did
in the days of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Plotinus, of Appolonius of Tyana,
and of other truth-seekers who have been the shapers of the culture and
faiths of the occident, ‘From the Orient cometh the Light.”

The tradition of Indian philosophic thought is as complex as it is long,
but because of the Indian indifference to chronology, it is impossible
to present the detailed development of this thought in its proper
historical perspective. Similarly, little is known about the individual
thinkers of Indian philosophy, although our knowledge of its various
systems is relatively rich. Ancient Indians, it appears, concentrated
almost exclusively on philosophies and disregarded philosophers. The
complexities of Indian philosophy have arisen through centuries of deep
reflection on the many aspects of human experience, and, in the search
for some reality behind the external world, various methods have been
resorted to ranging from the experimental to the purely speculative. In
consequence there developed six basic systems of Hinduism, four main
schools of Buddhism, two schools of Jainism, as well as the materialist
thought of Carvaka.® In spite of this diversity, Indian philosophy in
general is distinguished by a concentration upon the spiritual; a belief in
the intimate relationship of philosophy and life; an introspective approach
to reality which does not however neglect the study of the physical world;
a tendency towards monistic idealism, which has not been oblivious to
the claims of materialism; and an extensive use of intuitive reasoning for
the realization of the ultimate.

Probably the oldest philosophical tradition in the world is to be traced

in the ancient Vedas, although there are some prominent pre-vedic

elements even in this tradition such as: the influence of forests in the
ie F the people; temple worship accompanied by the contemplation of
e divine in a more concrete form; the elevation of animals, birds, and

trees io a position ofimportance in the scheme of the universe; and the
exaltation of the female aspect of the divine.*

Although the religious and
distinctly in the Rig Veda,
for the vedic civilization
not exclude cosmologic

to God as ifbound in a

philosophical spirit of India emerges
the Upanishads are its most brilliant exposition,
was naturalistic and utilitarian, although it did
al and religious speculation. Man offered sacrifice
Contract with Him to obtain material prosperity:

24

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

One of the most significant concepts of vedic India was that of rza, the
idea of the true order of the world, a concept that may be considered the
forerunner of dharma of ancient and even modern times.® In the Vedas a
unique march of the human mind from the worship of half-personified
powers of nature, such as fire, wind, and rain, to the conception of the
Absolute, the One, is clearly seen. In the beginning there was no clear
distinction between one deity and another as all were phenomena of
nature. The same name was employed to signify more than one deity,
and the same power was attributed to a number of gods. This led to the
belief that they were all one in reality. Later, there arose a series of deities,
Prajapati, Aditi, Prana, and Kala. But gradually the vedic thinkers,
discarding all anthropomorphism, arrived at a single primordial reality,
the underlying unity. They call him “many who is really One.” It was
this tendency towards monism which was later systematically developed
in the Upanishads.

Older than Plato or Confucius, the Upanishads are the most ancient
of philosophical works and contain the mature wisdom of India’s
intellectual and spiritual attainment. They have inspired not only the
orthodox systems of Indian thought but also the so-called heterodox
schools such as Buddhism. In profundity of thought and beauty of style,
they have rarely been surpassed not only in Indian thought but in the
Western and Chinese philosophical traditions as well. The Upanishads
have greatly influenced Indian culture throughout history and have also
found enthusiastic admirers abroad. Schopenhauer was almost lyrical
about them and Max Müller said: “The Upanishads are the ... sources of
... the Vedanta philosophy, a system in which human speculation seems
to me to have reached its very acme.” The Upanishads are saturated with
the spirit of inquiry, intellectual analysis, and a passion for seeking the
truth. Being works of a host of sages and scholars, speaking out of the
fullness of their illumined experience over a period of centuries, they
contain, naturally, many ambiguities and contradictions. The spirit of
all upanishadic inquiry, however, was that the final essence or truth was
the Atman—the spark of divinity within all beings—and that a search
for this was man’s highest duty. Although a logical and coherent system
of metaphysics may be lacking in the Upanishads, it does not matter
in comparison with their outburst of the joy and emotion of intuitive

25

p Y

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

experience. The general and overriding tendency found i n these texts is
toward absolute monism, contained in the recognition of unity between
Atman, the individual principle, and Brahman, the cosmic principle
or essence of the universe, with the emphasis on self-realization. “The
Universe is Brahman but the Brahman is the Atman.” The Upanishads
do not argue against the existence of many different gods, but argue
that there is one Being of whom all the gods are manifestations, and
the real, which is at the heart of the universe, is in the infinite depths of
the self. Brahman is Atman and the Truth is within us. Brahman is the
universal spirit approached from the objective side; Atman, the self, is
the same universal spirit approached from the subjective side. Atman is
imprisoned in man’s body, mind, and understanding, all of which foster
in him a congenital ignorance of his own infinitude and of his oneness
with all beings. The true goal of human life is liberation, moksha, from
this captivity. During the period of the Upanishads, moksha became
the end and transcendent knowledge, jnana, the means. The gods and
sacrifices were dethroned from their position of supremacy, religious
formalism and ritualism were discarded, and even the knowledge of the
Vedas was considered inadequate. Knowledge is exalted above works as
the means of realizing truth, and the highest wisdom is to know the self
(atmanam viddhi) which is the primal spirit, or pure awareness, distinct
from rodiy states and mental happenings. “I am Brahman” and “Thou
art That” are the two key teachings of the Upanishads.‘

The Upanishads form a principal source for the Indian schools of
philosophy. In fact, whilst the Upanishads were being compiled or
oe eel systems began to be formulated into
formulated, but they ie es ? cell bow dines Beene We

: generally classified into two major divisions;
the nastika and the astika. The former includes those schools of thought
aS as the Buddhist, Jain, and the Carvaka, which neither coe date

edas as infallible nor attempt to impose their own validity on vedic

ng.
contrast to the Western tradition

AS 26

WES ISE MQ N

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

has remained more stable and more clearly continuous. In spite of
its metaphysical nature and religious overtones, Indian philosophy
is essentially practical, aiming at realizing spiritually what is known
intellectually. Knowledge without vision is meaningless. Hence Indians
call their philosophy darshana, vision. One progresses from knowledge
gained through study, sravana, through contemplative meditation and
ethical discipline, nididhyasana and manana, to the final vision, saksatkara.
Philosophy and religion in India are intertwined, because religion for
the Hindu is experience or an attitude of mind, a transformation of
one’s being, a consciousness of the ultimate reality, not a theory about
God. Whatever view of God the Hindu may adopt, he believes that the
divine is in man. The supreme being, which is both absolute and God, is
conceived as the object of philosophical inquiry, or jnana, and as an object
of religious devotion, upasana. In religious experience the conception of
ultimate reality and that of a personal god are reconciled, although in
religious thought the reconciliation is not easy to effect. Philosophy, as
religion, is seen in India as a means to an end, not as an end in itself.
Hence, there is no room for dogma or intolerance in Indian tradition
because the roads to truth are more than one. The infinite reality cannot
be comprehended by the finite human mind.

Indian philosophy developed over a period of many centuries in various
widely separated regions, yet the philosophers traversed more or less the
same path and in many aspects closely anticipated the same philosophical
concepts which emerged later in the West. The Indian conception of the
bearing of philosophy on life is uniformly the same in almost all systems
of Indian philosophy and has inspired all philosophical and religious
teachings. That philosophy should not remain just an academic theory
but should transform the whole life and lead men to the path of self-
realization, ultimately bringing them back to the level of other men,
making them share the common duties of social life in a perfected form,
and binding them with ties of love together in one humanity, is the final
wisdom of Indian thought.””

As the principal systems of Indian philosophy originated in times
for which there is little chronological data available, their beginnings
cannot be traced with any exactitude. There is some disagreement
amongst scholars as to the period and order of emergence of the six

27

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

systems, darshanas, of Indian philosophy, but it is generally agreed that
the foundations of these schools had been laid before the time of the
Buddha, although further developments may have taken place later. Some
of these schools, such as the Samkhya, were probably well established by
the time of the Buddha's birth.”

Thus, perhaps, India is the home of philosophy. Certainly India is a
country where philosophy has always been very popular and influential.
An American scholar has stated that teachers of philosophy in India
were as numerous as merchants in Babylonia.” The sages have always
been heroes of the Indians, and some of their festive celebrations were
marked by relentless debates between the chief exponents of rival schools
of thought. If philosophy did emerge in India earlier than in Greece and if
thetwo countries were in close contact soon after this emergence, it is not
unlikely that Indian thought had some influence on Greek philosophy,
especially on those aspects which appear somewhat alien to the Greek
care and resemble the Indian. Theoretically, it is quite feasible,

Ses that the Greeks had reached their conclusions independently
or that they were influenced, as has often been postulated, by the older
civilizations of the Nile and the Euphrates.

‘The similarity between the theory of Thales, that water is the material
a of all things, and the vedic idea of primeval waters as the origin of

e universe, was first pointed out by Ri
too, between the aa of ee = oe eo ae
philosophical beliefs are striking. Whereas he Milesi ie i : =
ante sh crea esians, or lonians, in

reece had sought the first principle of all things i

vei ene Bo tei ngs in matter and
ed in a scientific explanation of the universe, Pythagoras
in western Greece sought it in form. The answers øi by ee
and his followers to questions about ee
E e ee eret ina ut man represent a more developed

] constitute a distinct st in Greek
thought, which had 2 ee
eae aa a on later developments of

ably influential on the thinki

Ma $ ; inking of Plato.
ae T was mm exceptionally outstanding thinker, a founder both of

reek mathematical science and of phil i :
the first to give the name cosm aE e meem ert
notions of order, fi e a e vaal oi

er, fitness, and beauty—to the worl
pursuit of knowledge philosophia (the | ee gee och ow?
ove of wisdom) rather than sophia

28

(PESOS a = ee

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

(wisdom) which he thought pretentious. He was also the first Greek to
teach the doctrine of metempsychosis in the Hellenic world. Pythagoras
drew inspiration from the legendary Thracian poet and bard, Orpheus,
whose cult included several features absent in the Homeric religion,
such as the belief in the immortality of the soul, in its transmigration
from body to body, in the existence of an individual and a universal
soul, and in the purification of the soul. Connected with the belief in
the transmigration of the soul is the most important of the Pythagorean
taboos, the abstention from taking animal life. The beast or bird that one
eats may be inhabited by the soul of one’s ancestor. Initiation into the
Pythagorean society required, in addition to the purification of the body
by abstinence and self-control, a purification of the mind by scientific
study. If the transmigration of souls is possible and usual, then all life is
akin. In common with the early thinkers of the Upanishads, Pythagoras
believed that “all souls are similar in class and the apparent distinctions
between human and other kinds of beings are not ultimate.” As in
Indian thought, the purpose of life in the Pythagorean system is to gain
release from reincarnation through virtue. Pythagoras’ cosmic dualism
of matter and form—on one side the world of nature and the elements,
on the other the spirits, both being combined in organic nature—is also
vaguely reminiscent of the dvaita (dualistic) philosophy of the Samkhya,
which recognizes two ultimate realities, prakriti (nature) and purusha
(spirit).

Pythagoras, being a mathematician, expressed his cosmology in
mathematical terms. The world in his philosophy is a mixture of light and
darkness, good and evil, the formless and the form. The imposition of
limit (peras) on the unlimited (apeiron) created the limited (peperasmenon).
In the Indian scheme, prakriti is the ultimate cosmic energy—primal
matter which exists externally—and is the basis of all objective existence,
physical and psychical. Purusha, the conscious principle of creation,
coexists eternally with prakriti. The evolution of unconscious prakriti
can take place only through the presence of conscious purusha. Both
are eternal, devoid of characteristics, and formless. Prakriti in its
transformations becomes a perceivable object, whilst purusha, the self,
remains the perceiving subject. Pythagoras’ doctrine that nothing can
arise which has not existed before, and that nothing existing can be

29

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

annihilated is exactly parallel to the Samkhya doctrine about eternity
and the indestructibility of matter. The Samkhya system is so termed
because it observes a precision of reckoning in the enumeration of its
principles; Samkhya being understood to signify “numeral.” Hence its
analogy to the Pythagorean philosophy has been presumed. It was Sir
William Jones, the founder of comparative philology, who first pointed
out the similarities between Indian and Pythagorean beliefs. Later, other
scholars such as Colebrooke, Garbe, and Winternitz also testified to the
Indian inspiration of Pythagoras.

The history of Pythagoreanism is a particularly controversial subject in
Greek philosophy. Early evidence is lamentably scanty, and it is almost
impossible to recover the earlier forms of Pythagorean speculation. An
insight into Pythagoras’ thought during its formative stages might well
have led historians to the source of his inspiration. Herodotus, like Plato
and others who attributed all wisdom to Egyptian sources, suggested
that Pythagoras obtained the doctrine of rebirth from Egypt. This was
natural as the Greeks were deeply impressed by the antiquity of Egyptian
civilization. However, it is now quite evident that the Egyptians did not
believe in the transmigration of souls at all.” In discussing the sources

of influences on Pythagoras, Gomperz points out, “There is a far closer
agreement between Pyt

their general features

force becomes considerable. ‘The transmi
of five elements, the Pythagorean theo
on eating beans, the religiophilosophic
fraternity, and the mystical speculatio
_ have their close parallels in ancient In

gration theory, the assumption
ry in geometry, the prohibition
al character of the Pythagorean
ns of the Pythagorean school all

dia. Everyone of the Pythagorean
30

PEO

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

doctrines “which we know formed the ‘gospel’ of Pythagoras and the
Pythagorean brotherhood at Crotona, was an almost exact reproduction
of the cardinal doctrines of the Indian Vidya and the Indian Yoga—so
much so that Indian Vedantins today do not hesitate to claim Pythagoras
as one of themselves, one of their great expounders ....””8

Pythagoras’ doctrine of metempsychosis appears without any
connection or explanatory background, and it was regarded by the
Greeks as foreign in origin. Where did Pythagoras gain access to Indian
doctrines? Did he travel to India? Although he was a great traveller, it
seems impossible that Pythagoras should have made his way to India
at so early a date, but he could quite well have met Indians in Persia.”
Such a possibility seems more likely when it is recalled that Pythagoras
was still living in his lonian home when Ionia came under the Persians,
and that it was an age of intellectual ferment. It is also not unlikely that
the early immigrants who peopled Greece had come from the East and
brought with them some ideas of Indian origin.™

Pythagoras also created an organized celibate brotherhood somewhat
like the Buddhists, but for political, economic, and religious purposes,
which exercised a very wide influence. In fact, the influence of the
Pythagorean order grew to such an extent that it incurred the wrath of
the tyrant Cylon. Pythagoras himself is said to have met his death by
assassination, and after his death many of his followers were burned at
the stake in mass executions. After these massacres Pythagoreanism
came to an end as a political force, although it continued to survive as
a religious cult.

In contrast to Pythagorean dualism, there developed at about
the same time in southern Italy, an offshoot of Milesian thought of
monistic character, known as the Eleatic school, which incorporated
the foundations of Greek metaphysics.*! In 545 s.c. Ionia had become
a Persian province, which led Xenophanes (ca. 570-475 B.c.) to move to
a new home in Elea. Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno of Elea sought
for the one reality underlying material phenomena in very much the
same spirit as some of the later vedic hymns and the Upanishads. They
tried to prove, unlike Heraclitus, that neither multiplicity nor movement
could exist, and they concluded in favour of a stricter notion of unity
and the existence of an absolute being. They taught “of a single god who

31

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

worked by intellection alone, and posited an essential connection between
divinity, eternity, reality, and spherical shape.”® This Eleatic philosophy
of a basic unity in all things, the whole of reality consisting of a single,
motionless and unchanging substance, is similar to the upanishadic
doctrine of the All-one.

Born about 515 B.c., Parmenides was the founder of the Eleatic school
and furthered the Greeks on the path of abstract thought, setting the
mind working without reference to external facts. He “dealt a death blow
to material monism of the Ionian type.”* His philosophy of the one
absolute existence which is being and thought (saż and cif) at the same
time, his recognition of not-being (maya) as conceptually antithetical
to the idea of being and as essentially non-existent, his explanation of
the plurality of the world which is only apparent, his distinction of the
phenomenal and the noumenal (the vyavaharika and para marthika) are
akin to the upanishadic teachings as interpreted by Samkaracharya.™
Gomperz finds an exact parallel to the blissful primary being of Melissus,
with its total lack of initiative and influence, in the lore of the vedantic
philosophy in which the world is similarly represented as a mere delusive
appearance with a central being whose sole attributes are essence,
thought, and bliss (saż cit, and ananda) ®

Eleatis criticism of the Ionian philosophy gave rise to a school of
pluralist thinkers who saw truth on both sides and attempted to reconcile
the two lines of reasoning. This school included Empedocles (ca. 495—435
oe a With the Eleatics in his denial of becoming but assumed
T Ta ee Anaxagoras, and the founders of Atomism,
tobe the naturalouterne r ough the Atomic theory would appear

come of the mathematical knowledge of the Greeks,

F. ay has suggested its inspiration in the atomistic notions existing
in India at the time. Both Leucippus and Democritus had travelled widely
in the East and possibly met Indians in Persia.

-c., Protagoras ;
x $ , was the first to call himself
a sophist. He taught neither science nor scholarship, but conduct. His

famous saying, the Protagorean dictum, that man was the measure of

all things, became a philosophical doctrine. ‘The sophists were highly
32

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

expensive travelling professors in the art of success. Little is known
about them, and they were not very serious thinkers. They were generally
uninterested in absolute religious or moral values, having accepted the
widespread notion that morality was a relative concept and a matter of the
conventions of particular societies. Socrates (ca. 470-399 s.c.) disagreed
with this sort of moral relativism, and this eventually led to his conflict
with Athenian society. Ironically, sophistic humanism found perfection in
Socrates, who regarded the sophists of his day with a certain derision.

With Socrates, as with Plato later, the central preoccupation came
to be man, and it was through an understanding of man’s nature and
behaviour that philosophical thought reverted to questions relating to
God and the universe. Socrates preached that the most important thing
in life was for man to know what he was and what he was for, and to care
for his soul, and he believed that “virtue is knowledge.” Socrates wrote
nothing and claimed to know nothing, except that whilst he knew that
he knew nothing, others did not. Socrates’ most lasting contribution was
the inspiration he gave to his pupil, Plato.

Historically, Socrates marks a decisive point in ancient Greek thought,
whilst restraining the excesses of dogmatism, he did not relinquish the
possibility of a knowledge suited to human faculties. Socrates did not
precisely formulate a doctrine and is therefore hardly assigned a place
in philosophy. He devised the process of induction and founded the
study of ethics in its own right, having detached it from religion. Yet he
was a deeply religious man and often talked of his inner voice. During
the course of his trial, he said that this voice first came to him when he
was a child and that it always forbade but never commanded him to do
anything which he did not want to do. Unlike most thinkers, Socrates
never claimed that he had seen the truth himself, and, in fact, he delighted
in confessing his ignorance. Yet he had some convictions of truth which
he called inspirations. He new that reality is good and nothing but good,
and that this reality could be found, if the search were earnest enough.
He arduously sought to find the secret of life and that knowledge which
serves the soul. He sought for the truth which reveals God, for the reality
which makes goodness real, makes virtue unshakeable and reafizes the
perfection of the soul’s relations to all existing things. It was his faith,
which he did not attempt to prove, that reality, goodness, and God are all

33

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

one. He could not think of a real cause which was not good, nor a good
which was not nous (wisdom), nor a universe which was not basically
both nous and good. In fact, all his questions were but Variations ofa
single question. What are knowledge and ignorance? What is the one?
What are the many? What is right? What is the ideal state? Each and all
of these were different aspects of his supreme quest: “How shall we find
God and be like Him?” It was in this respect that he, and later Plato,
turned philosophy into religion and fused metaphysics, ethics, politics,
and all other disciplines into an indissoluble unity, just as the Indian
thinkers had done in relating all their thought to the one reality.*

‘The view that Socrates could have been aware of Indian philosophy
receives added support from the fact that Indian scholars visited Athens
during his time. Aristoxenus (ca. 330 B.c.), the author of the Harmonies
and a pupil of Aristotle, is reported by Eusebius (ca. 264-364 A.D.) to
have mentioned that certain Indian scholars visited Athens and that
one of them asked Socrates his views on the scope of philosophy, “An
inquiry into human phenomena,” teplied Socrates. “How can we inquire
into human phenomena,” the Indian exclaimed, “when we are ignorant
of divine ones.”37

The whole history of Greek and Indian philosophy seems to be a
continual dialogue between rational thought and analysis on one side, and
religious mysticism on the other, although in India religious mysticism,

Not in the sense of ecstatic exaltation of the soul but the realization
of God within the soul, or “int

has a more central place. These

of its release by Purification. It was a simple

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

evil lay in the body with its appetites and passions and these had to be
subdued before any progress could be made.

The mystic tradition found in these movements, as well as in the
doctrines of Plato and Pythagoras, is certainly un-Hellenic.” The Greeks
generally regarded the corporeal man as the real man and the soul merely
as a sort of image. But in the Orphic philosophy the soul is eternal and
indestructible whilst the body is transient, unclean, and contemptible.
The Greeks also generally enjoyed life on earth, but the Orphics regarded
it as a sort of imprisonment. An Orphic phrase, “the wheel of birth” may
be a literal translation of the Sanskrit janmachakra. Zeller, who upholds
the independent tradition of Greek philosophy, concedes that the central
idea of the Orphic cult of the liberation of the soul from the body is
wholly foreign to Greek nature, and is of Indian origin, acquired by the
Greeks through Persia.”!

The Orphic movement began in the sixth century 8.c. and lasted well
into the Christian era, and, although it comprised only a small minority
of religious devotees, it exercised a profound influence on Greek and
Christian religious thought. A concept of sin and conscience, a dualistic
view of the body as evil and of the soul as divine, entered into Greek
thought; and the subjection of the flesh as a condition of release for the
soul became one of the main purposes of religion.” Pythagoras probably
got some of his concepts from them. The pantheism and asceticism of
stoicism and the mysticism of the Neoplatonists can also be traced in part
to Orphism, as can Plato’s diametrically opposed body and soul. “Plato
was not only the greatest original genius of Greek religious thought”
writes Guthrie, “but also the one to whom the Orphic cycle of beliefs
made the strongest appeal.”

The Eleusinian cult does not differ from the Orphic cult in theoretical
background except that it places greater emphasis on the correctness
of ritual. Although it offers supernatural hopes, it makes salvation
dependent upon ritual purification rather than upon nobility of life. This
cult also wielded extensive and enduring influence both on later Greek

“thought and Christianity. The great Greek poets, such as Sophocles (ca.
495-406 z.c.) and Euripides (ca. 480-408 B.C.), often referred to both
cults in their writings.”

35

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The mystic tradition finds its fullest expression in Plato (427-347
B.c.), a great admirer of the Pythagorean school. It is significant that
Pythagoras is the only great Greek thinker whom Plato never criticizes,
In fact, he speaks of him with the utmost reverence, and resembles him
in spirit and aim as well as in substance.

Plato lived in a period when the great classical age was coming to an
endin Greece. The fratricidal strife of the Pelopornnesian War (431-404
B.C.) had weakened the Greek city states, and Plato wrote in a period
of transition. He participated in politics for a while during his early life
and wrote mostly on this subject. Behind his writing, however, there
lay a profound philosophy and his thought has had an extensive, deep,
and lasting influence on the European intellectual tradition.” Indeed,
the influence of Platonic philosophy on world history can hardly be
overestimated. At first it was disseminated through the Academy Plato
had founded and later through a variety of philosophical systems, such
as the Aristotelean, Jewish-Hellenistic, Neoplatonist, and Christian.

In Plato’s philosophy the central issues concern man and his social,
political, and religious conduct. But for his solutions he looks beyond
appearance to reality. The material world is made up of “appearances,” or
phenomena, which are only shadows of reality. These phenomena may be
perceived by the senses but are unreliable as sources of truth. The truth
s truly realis something unchanging, eternal, and divine. It is the world
of forms or ideas with its ultimate principle, the good. Plato’s idea of the

good is very close to the supreme God of th i f
the oldest Upanishad of the Upanishads. The prayer 0

From the unreal lead me to the Real
From Darkness to the Light
From Death to Immortality%

is frequently reflected in Plato’s D
Plato is that ordinary man is not
a sleep-walker in pursuit of phant
shadows, and the realm of truth
analogy of the cave” in
are unaware of the tru

> and reality lies beyond. The well-known
w ich he illustrates the position of those who
, reminds us of the Hindu doctrine of maya, the

36

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

“illusion of the senses.” Plato likens the human race to men assembled
in a cave, bound, with their backs to a burning fire, and seeing the
shadows projected on the wall before them of the people passing behind
them, they mistake them for real objects. He made a clear distinction
between appearance and reality, as well as between the worlds of thought
and sense.

Plato considered the soul to be indissoluble and immortal and the
body a fetter to which men were chained “as an oyster to his shell.” The
body is a tomb of the soul, the source of evil from which the soul longs
to be purified.” After death the soul passes into other organisms, higher
or lower depending on the extent to which the knowledge of good and
evil has been pursued by the soul in its previous incarnation. The soul
ascends to the vision of divine reality, which Plato calls “The Good” and
which is the highest of the ideas or forms, or God himself. To perceive
this good is the loftiest goal of knowledge, and the pursuit of wisdom is
to loosen the soul from being fastened or glued to the body. For Plato
asceticism is one of the most effective ways of liberating the soul from
its physical encumbrance, because each emotion of pleasure and pain is
a nail riveting the soul to the body. This concept is somewhat alien to
the Greek spirit.

To the ordinary Greeks the body counted for a good deal. They
made physical education an important part of their training by placing
considerable emphasis on games. The essential unity of human soul
and divine spirit, the immortality of the human soul, its escape from
the restless journey of reincarnation, contempt for the body and the
phenomenality of the material world, are all ideas that clash headlong
with Greek popular beliefs. Until the fifth century B.c. the word “soul”
(psyche) did not have any flavour of puritanism or metaphysical status for
a Greek, nor was the soul regarded as the reluctant prisoner of the body;
it was the life or spirit of the body and was perfectly at home there. The
lasting contribution of the new religious ideas was the suggestion of the
divine origin of the soul which was continually at odds with the body.
It was this innovation which Rohde has called “a drop of alien blood in
the veins of the Greeks.” Where did this drop come from? Scholars
have given a variety of answers, but most suggest Eastern origins in Asia
Minor or beyond in India.

37

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The essence of mysticism, that reality cannot be perceived by sense but
can only be reached by inner experience, is present in some form or other
in Greek thought from Pythagoras to Plato. In an analysis of Indian and
Western religious thought, Radhakrishnan observes:

The divine origin of the soul, its pre-existence, its fall into corporeality, its
judgment after death, its expiatory wanderings through the bodies of animals or
men according to its character, its final redemption from the cycle of rebirth and
return to God, are common to the mystery cults of Plato and Empedocles. This
tradition is something which Hellenic thought, untouched by alien speculation,
was perhaps not very likely to have developed, and we have it in a striking form
in Indian religion.

Oriental influence on Plato, especially Persian, has been acknowledged
by a host of European scholars, such as Jaegar, Reitzenstein, Bidez, and
Cumont. If Plato’s thought could be influenced by outside ideas such
as the Orphic-Pythagorean doctrines, it could be so influenced again.
Indeed, there is good reason to believe that he had learned something
of Persian religion from a Chaldaean pupil at his Academy and from
his friend, Eudoxus, the astronomer, and an admirer of Zoroastrianism.
‘There are also a significant number of scholars, such as Colebrooke,
Royle, Pococke, William Jones, and Enfield, who support the theory of
Indian influence on Plato’s thought.’

In a relatively modern and comprehensive study, E. J. Urwick has
es Plato’s thought and pointed out striking parallels, both in

peter concepts and in details, between Plato’s teachings and those
e ny $ vedantic philosophy in India. Urwick is not so much concerned
He ee the degree of Indian influence on Plato as in claiming
I T P ee doctrines are not easily understood without reference to
-ndan teaching. He does not claim that all of Plato’s writings must be
interpreted from a transcendental standpoint and are eee ordinary

rational criticism. But he does maintai ; ;
there is a background of faith ane ain that behind his works as a whole

S metaphysics, ethics, politics,
ather than rational.

n Se
the comprehensive epitome of Pla on the Republic, which he regards as

= thinking, and suggests that Plato

Ln, is ect he aaa

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

and the Indian sages were “occupied with the self-same search, inspired
by the same faith, and drawn upwards by the same vision.” Urwick has
argued at length with great detachment and a remarkable understanding
of both the Indian and the Greek traditions of thought.

Impossible as it is to represent his view with justice without writing at
some length, it must be observed that he illustrates parallelism not only
in Indian and Greek thought, but in the words used to express them as
well. He finds that Plato’s

conceptions, arguments, and conclusions are in most cases identical with
those of the Hindu Scriptures; the language in which he clothes them is often
extraordinarily similar; several of his metaphors are repetitious of metaphors
found in the older writings; and the psychological and ethical terms to which
he gives a semi-technical use might serve excellently as translations of the

corresponding technical terms in the Sanskrit."

The three Indian gunas (qualities or elements—or the constituents
of prakriti), amas, rajas, and sattva, have exact equivalents in Plato’s
epithumia, thumos, and /ogistikon, which both constitute and explain the
nature of the soul and the state. Epithumia, like tamas, represents blind
desire with its character of ignorance; thumos, like rajas, is the element
of power and passion; and logistikon, like sattva, is the rational quality
which harmonizes the soul and illumines it. The Indian triad, however
is more ethical in its connotation than Plato’s terminology.

Just as Manu described the Hindu Varna system as having been based
upon the three principles in the individual soul, so did Plato divide
his state into three classes—guardians, auxiliaries, and craftsmen—
representing the three psychical elements.” Furthermore, the old Ionian
society in Attica was divided into four tribes, associated in tradition with
Ion and his four sons, and thus this system is said to have been of Asian
origin, presumably Aryan. Aristotle mentions this system as the first
and the earliest. Both in Ionia and India, certainly there once existed
a social state which was adapted to the fourfold way of life. But in the
former the priests were put after the agriculturists. Plato however was
inclined to place the priests first, as had been done in India.

Plato’s conversion of the soul is identical with the vairaga of the Vedas;
his contrast between ordinary knowledge and true wisdom corresponds to

39

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the contrast between vidya in the sense of knowledge and adhyatmavidya
or direct perception of the spiritual universe; his zous, the higher arc of
soul divine and immortal, is the a¢man or the spiritual consciousness of
the vedantic doctrine; his dikaiosune or righteousness is the dharma of
Indian philosophy, which appears as the crown and glory of each path,
but with a very different meaning in each case. His doctrine of Anamnesis
or recollection is identical with the doctrine of the origin of all true
knowledge proclaimed by Vedantins, and his correlative theory of eternal
ideas, designated as his greatest contribution to Western metaphysics,
has an astonishingly close counterpart in the vedanta doctrine.”

The doctrine of reincarnation has been a common belief in numerous
religions from the Hindus to the Druids, and the Greeks could have
acquired it from anyone of them. But when it appears side by side
with many other essential elements of Hindu teaching, as it does in the
philosophies of Pythagoras and Plato, it is fair to assume that it was
derived most directly from India.

Tt seems, however, somewhat surprising that in spite of such close
parallelism there should be no specific acknowledgment of the awareness
of Indian thought in Plato’s writing. It is also strange that such detailed
information should have been transmitted to Plato without the aid of
any written works; for which, once again, there is no historical evidence,
ee a z the Phaedo at his willingness to
barbarians, Indians, or only ee ee See no T
a vague reference. It is true that Plato was i ae ae a
acknowledgments, but he does acknowl ie ; eS ee nee i
theological sources. Would he not he oe pee Gre
or the Indian sources, if he had reall a ah Been oe oes
however, does not indicate the ae a Ce ae

awareness. Indeed, awareness

€ rejection of an alien thought
al stimulation. If Plato were
ugh evidence to reason that
Eudoxus was—it would be

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

intellectually receptive than they are generally credited with being. Greek
and Indian thinkers were amongst the least prejudiced of them all. Their
intellectual arrogance never followed the lines of national distinction.
Their contempt was directed, if at all, not at the men of different nations
or cultures, but at those who possessed no culture at all. An untutored
Greek surely would have been held in much less regard by Plato than
a barbaric scholar or a Vedantin from India. Could not the absence of
definite acknowledgment of Indian thought on the part of Plato be
explained, therefore, by the fact that his knowledge of it was indirect,
fragmentary, and, at best, uncertain? Few scholars, even today when it
is so fashionable to litter one’s writing with prodigious footnotes, would
specifically acknowledge their debt unless they were sure of their source
and accuracy of understanding. Yet it is equally, or even more, difficult
to accept the theory of a completely independent intellectual growth in
the face of such striking similarities both in fundamental ideas and in
details, particularly in view of the evidence of political and commercial
contacts between the two peoples.

One enormous difficulty in appreciating commentaries on Plato and
in resolving divergent opinions stems from the very nature of his writings
and personality. Both are rich and complex, and an ingenious scholar can
easily dig out extracts from Plato’s Dialogues to suit his objective. In fact,
many students have done so, and Plato has been revealed at various times
“as a complete sceptic and as a complete mystic, as a pupil of Aquinas,
as a Cambridge Platonist and as one of Nature’s Balliol men, as an early
Christian and as a very early Nazi.”

Whether Plato was influenced by Indian doctrines or not, his
philosophy, as that of Greece in general, has its own distinctive
personality. Whilst the sages of the Upanishads were principally
concerned with moksha, release from the cycle of births, Plato mainly
preached about the formation of an ideal state. He raised the concept of
dualistic mysticism from a religious belief to scientific theory and made
it a dominant principle of Western philosophy by transforming it into
a philosophic system embracing the whole cosmos.’ Again, there are
many things in Plato’s Dia/ogues which are alien to the Indian mind.

Just as Plato departed from his teacher, Socrates, so did his greatest
pupil, Aristotle, depart from him, although Aristotle later kept a good

41

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

deal more Platonism in his thinking than is often admitted. He shared
Plato’s concern for the goodness of personal and social life, and his
ideal of certain and unchanging knowledge. But, ses he didi not
completely reject transcendent realities, He did think that “the objects
of philosophic knowledge must be found in and through the world our
senses show us, and not in an altogether transcendent world of eternal
realities knowable only by the disembodied reason.!" Less attractive
ideologically than Plato, although more orderly, Aristotle refused to
believe that the world was anything but real. Yet he had accepted as a
young pupil the whole of Plato’s philosophy, including the doctrine of
ideas, and the immortality and transmigration of the soul. If he later felt
compelled to depart from it, he could not make a clear break. Plato’s
legacy never fully left him and his metaphysics fundamentally remained
the same. “For all his reaction towards the standpoint of common sense
and empirical fact,” observes Cornford, “Aristotle could never cease
to be a Platonist.”"? His idealism, however, takes a definite shape in
his humanistic works, the Ethics and the Politics, and his best known
contribution thus lies in the sphere of moral philosophy.

Although no one has suggested any contact or mutual influence
between Aristotle and the famous Indian political thinker, Kautilya,
Saletore, an Indian historian, has noted in a recent study sufficient
parallels and contrasts between the systems of these two philosophers to
suggest the value ofa close comparative study of their ideas. Kautilya was
a contemporary of Alexander, though younger in years than Aristotle.
Tt was, in fact, only two years after the death of Aristotle in 322 B.C.
that Kautilya became the
(320-296 B.c.).13 Saletore

state, and self-sufficiency
its general function, Both
with virtue, and both stre
Amongst the contrasts,
to be happy in isolation

42

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

During the period when Aristotle flourished, contact between India
and Greece became much closer, almost direct. His prince-pupil,
Alexander, had established Greek paramountcy in the northwestern part
of India. And, if the premature death of Alexander in 323 s.c. had not
been followed by that of Aristotle himself a year later, it is not unlikely
that Aristotle would have visited India, meeting the scholars he so
much wanted to, or else, would have received Indian scholars in Greece.
Whatever may have been the political consequences of Alexander’s death
and the disintegration of the Macedonian Empire, the Indo-Greek
cultural partnership did not receive as much impetus for expansion as it
might otherwise have.

Amongst the factors that contributed to cultural intercourse between
India and Greece, a major one must have been the affinity between Indian
and Greek attitudes. Both were inquisitive peoples, firmly believing in
reason. In India, one often finds the guru (teacher) asking the sisya (pupil)
to be sceptical and always questioning; sanka (doubt) is the stepping-
stone to spiritual knowledge. Never considered to be in conflict with the
tight kind of faith, honest doubt, in fact, was considered a corrective to
the excesses of the latter. The divine value of an honest doubt is not to
be denied. Whilst the guru is the guide in the quest and he alone can
dispel the darkness of ignorance, the sisya must draw the guru out by his
intellectual scepticism, exercised with the utmost respect for the guru.
An Indian disciple is a blend of intellectual independence and extreme
devotion for his teacher, attributing all of his accomplishments to the
latter. Plato, in this respect, was a true Indian sisya, for he gave Socrates
all the credit for his own wisdom. The Jnana Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita
literally means the path of union through the knowledge and perception
of God achieved by intellectual realization. The importance attached to
reason in the Giza is very great. Krishna asks Arjuna to seek salvation in
the wisdom of reason.!%

‘The teachings of both the ancient Greeks and the Indians are often in
a dialogue form, either between the “knowing guru” and the “doubting
sisya” or between two equally matched intellectuals holding divergent
views. Already in the early Upanishads, the dialectic method was used to
explain empirical and transcendental truths. Knowledge about Brahman
was imparted through a system of samuvada (discussion)—distinct from

43

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

vivada (dispute)—and the discussion progressed gradually from the
empirical to the transcendental interpretation. The dialectic method
of the Buddha’s argument, in which he starts by putting himself in
the mental position of the questioner gradually leading his opponents
up to his conclusions, is the same as that of the Socratic dialogue,"
The Greeks, like the Indians, were constantly seeking a religion and
philosophy of life which would affect all their activities and produce
equilibrium and a sense of harmony.

Geographically and climatically India is very different from Greece,
Comprising as it does the land and islands scattered around the Aegean
Sea, Greece has, unlike India, no real rivers that are navigable and
suitable for ports, and no forests, although in ancient times it is said to
have been more wooded than now. But in spite of these differences it
is noteworthy that both nations chose mountains as the abode of their
gods: the Greeks chose Olympus and the Indians the Himalayas.” By
and large, neither the Greek Olympian gods, nor the Indian Himalayan
deities are credited with having created the world. In fact, Zeus is “one
of the very few gods with recognizable and undoubted Indo-Germanic
names, Djeus, the well-attested sky and rain-god of the Aryan race.”!8
Divinity in Greece, as in India, was cheap; in fact, in India, all beings
are supposed to have the divine spark within them. There was a god for
everything. Both in India and Greece, gods, such as Indra and Zeus,
occasionally came down and practiced deceit, disguising themselves in
ee oa the affections of mortal women. Both races addressed
veh a ees terms, Unlike the Indian gods, however, the Greek
eee x twisting human beings they did not like. And there

gaer god, as there was in India, to check their arbitrariness.

oe Indians and Greeks were fascinated by mathematics and
metaphysics. Mathematics excited the Greeks most; Plato was an ardent
student and over the door of his Acad

Mathematics is required.” F oe ae : y

looked for unity aa order ae eae the Greeks instinctively
Most Greeks were neither pleasure-

life as it came. In ancient India, altho

majority of people led a healthy life

in physical pleasures without regardi

seekers nor ascetics and accepted
ugh there were ascetics, the great
of comfort and, in fact, revelled
ng them as evil or immoral. The

44

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

common conception of ancient India as a country of forest retreats,
hermitages, and saint-philosophers is grossly incorrect. Life in ancient
India was divided between a highly organized and sophisticated temporal
life on the one hand, and the simple and austere life of religious faith
and spiritual advancement on the other. It was a materially advanced,
socially enlightened, and psychologically uninhibited society in which
the pleasures of the flesh received healthy attention.

Although at times saints may seem to be more than abundant in
India she has had her share of sceptics and heretics. Even the beliefs
of Hinduism prescribed the fourfold goal of human life: dharma, artha,
kama, and moksa. These are not easily translatable terms, but they
generally mean righteousness, prosperity, enjoyment, and liberation.
Hindu piety which aimed at moksa (integration of the individual with
the universal resulting in the cessation of transmigration) through jnana
yoga (meditation), karma yoga (selfless action), and bhakti yoga (devotion),
allowed all three avenues to run through the four ashramas, or stages of
ideal life of equal duration. The young aspirant began as a brahmachari
pledged to a life of abstinence and study, at the end of which he entered
the life of a grihastha (householder), raising a family and discharging his
duties to society. Pursuit of wealth and pleasure was permitted within
the bounds of moral law. After the expiry of the period of active life, the
grihastha with his wife retired to a forest retreat to meditate on things of
the spirit in quietude and live the life of a vanaprastha. Free from social
bondage, and enriched by knowledge as well as experience, he could
reflect more profitably on the problems of life and reality. It was only
after this, a kind of refresher course, that the recluse could qualify to
become a sannayasin, renouncing all worldly possessions, pleasures, and
ties of family, nation, and community. A sannayasin had no caste, no
religion, and no home. He led the life of a wandering preacher, feeling
at home everywhere and exclusively devoted to the service of God. This
was the peak of the ideal life and had enormous prestige with Hindus.
The fact of its great prestige alone suggests that it was seldom attained.
In fact, more often than not the whole scheme of life was not practiced
as prescribed.

Whilst the Greek civilization, brilliant for its splendid achievements,
was unhappily short-lived, the ancient Indian civilization has continued

45

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

to grow and, in spite of its various vicissitudes, has ee . ad
spirit. This spirit is best described as the tendency z a Inding
joy and harmony in the present, to reflect, as the Greel s did, on the
supremacy of an inner life. Although ancient Greece is supposed to
be the fountainhead of European civilization, it is India, because of her
organic continuity in cultural development, which i perhaps closer in
spirit and outlook to ancient Greece than the nations of present-day
Europe. Without questioning the immense legacy of Greece to Western
civilization, it must be observed that the modern Europeans are in many
ways different from the ancient Greeks.

The most typical feature of the ancient Greek mind was a sense of the
wholeness of things. For example, a typical Greek was several things at
once, just as Solon was political and economic reformer, man of business,
and poet. The polis itself was not a machine for governing, but something
which touched almost the whole of life. In contrast, the modern mind
divides, specializes, thinks in categories. This difference is reflected in the
contrast between Greek and, for example, Gothic arts; between Greek
tragedy and English classical drama. In contrast to the Greek heritage,
Gothic architecture delights in a multiplicity of parts and Elizabethan
tragedy in the whole complexity and richness of life. One could cut a
scene from Shakespeare—and he has often been abridged—but not from
a Greek play. The Greek hero was an attempt to combine the virtues
which the later Western world divided between the knight and the
churchman. The sharp distinction which is normally drawn between the
physical and the spiritual world, the body and the soul, was foreign to
the Greeks at least until the time of Socrates and Plato.!2° The Greeks
had a sense of beauty, particularly in connection with the human form

and its surroundings, which led to perfect order and balance, even an
aesthetic mysticism, in their art and literature.

Yet it was this Greek insistence on the who
as much as form,

terms,

leness of things, on reason
on seeking boldly to explain all nature in nature’s
that laid the foundations of science and of Western civilization.

With all their love of philosophy,
affectionately but critically. For ce
science in one adventurous quest,

its aspects. Although they were h

nturies they combined philosophy and
and set out to explain the world in all

46

ardly scientists in the modern sense, for

the Greeks examined nature not only

LS A Ae

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

they lacked the methodical, accurate, and detailed power of observation
and of relating observed facts to theory, it was their philosophy which
gave birth to science. They considered wisdom not as a “mere theoretical
explanation of the world but also a definite practical attitude towards
life. In this respect Greek thought shows a striking similarity with the
main trend of the Indian philosophical system.”!”!

Amongst the Western peoples, the Greeks were the first to attempt to
devise an articulate system of concepts concerning the universe and the
unknown. They invented the word “philosophy,” and their observations
and reflections on such problems as the origin and nature of matter, of
mind, of goodness, of truth, of reality, and on a vast variety of other
themes all constituted part of their philosophy. But they distinguished
philosophy from mythology and also from the pursuit of knowledge for
utilitarian ends. A philosopher was a disinterested seeker of knowledge
wanting to know for the sake of knowing.!”

‘The origins of the cultural greatness of ancient Greece lie, significantly,
in Asia Minor. Ancient Greece, it may be recalled, comprised two parts,
European and Asian, divided or joined by the Aegean Sea. The Asian part
of Greece, Ionia, was colonized, according to early tradition, by refugees
from the European side of Greece or the Greek mainland, who were
escaping from the Dorians and other tribes, and the general similarity
between Ionians and Greeks was fostered and increased by the frequent
and growing intercourse between them. Although they sprang from the
same stock, they were not the same people. The European Greeks were
a mixed race as were the Iomans; the intermixing elements in European
Greece came from the north, and in Ionia they came from Asia. Later,
a large Ionian immigration into Europe formed an important section
of European Greece. Indeed, between these two peoples there had
always existed bitter rivalry. It was these Ionians, the Graeco-Asians,
who not only ushered in an era of intellectual revolution in Greece, but
constituted its most progressive and enterprising section. Greek thought,
rationalistic as well as empiricist, owes its inception to the Ionian school of
philosophy comprising Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Anaxagoras,
Herachtus, Pythagoras, and others. Herodotus, the father of history, and
Hippocrates, the founder of scientific medicine, although both Dorians,
wrote in Ionic. Homer, too, most likely came from Smyrna (Izmir)

47

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

located in the northern part of the Asian west coast. Aesop, Gie Greek
author of the Fables, came from Asia Minor. Even the humble origins of
the classical drama, a real literary achievement on the part of Attica, are
sought in Asia Minor and the Ionic element of the Athenian population.
Delivering the Gifford lectures half a century ago, Sir William Ramsay
observed: “The general tendency in modern estimates of Greek thought is
to regard Athens as the ‘Eye of Greece, Mother of Arts, and Eloquence,
whereas the true source of almost every branch of literature and science,
and the earliest great names in almost every department, belong to the
cities and colonies of the Old-Ionians.”!

In tracing the origins of abstract ideas in remote antiquity, it must be
admitted that one can hardly be certain or expect unanimity amongst
scholars. Whilst scholars during the last century were generally receptive
to the theory of Eastern influence on Greek thought, the modern
tendency has been to deny or diminish it. Typical of this attitude is
Nilsson who denies the origin of Greek dualism in the doctrine of
Zoroaster concerning the contest between good and evil in the world
but traces it in “Plato’s doctrine of the antithesis between the perishable
and changeful world of phenomena and the eternal and higher world of
the Forms.”4 This may be an overstretched interpretation of Platonic
thought but the theory of substantial Eastern influence, too, can be an
exaggerated estimate. The communication of philosophy is in general
exceedingly difficult; at best, only fragments of thought can be transmitted
through layers of peoples, periods, or religions. No record has been found
to suggest that the Greeks possessed any written Indian works or vice
versa. Furthermore, even if they had had access to some, it is doubtful if
they could have read them or had them translated. Whatever scholarly
communication there was between the two peoples was oral.

‘There is no documentary evidence to prove Indian influence on Greek
thought. The evidence which has survive
far from being conclusive. In fact, it con
of certain proof; however,

d is largely circumstantial and is
sists of deductive reasoning, not
i itis strongly suggestive and renders the theory
of Indian influence on Greek thought wellwithin the realm of probability
First, there is considerable evidence of close contact between India and
Greece. Second, according to Greek tradition, Thales, Empedocles, and
others travelled to Oriental countries to study philosophy. Third, the

48

STREET

HARAPPA TO ATHENS

mystical resemblances and parallels at times are too close and too frequent
to be purely coincidental. Fourth, features which are attributed to an
Indian origin are much in character with Indian thought and alien to
Greek attitudes. Finally, these concepts and ideas were definitely known
to have existed in India long before they emerged in Greece. This is quite
an impressive array of evidence, even if it is not conclusive. Hence, one
may be inclined to agree with E. R. Dodds, who suggests an “Oriental
background against which Greek culture arose, and from which it was
never completely isolated save in the minds of classical scholars.”!”° In
any case it can hardly be denied, as Macdonnell puts it, that “there is at
least the historical possibility of the Greeks having been influenced by
Indian thought through Persia.”!””

Much of the uncertainty about the influence of India upon Greece is
because most of the contemporary literature on the Greek side has been
lost and on the Indian side it was perhaps never preserved. The Indian
lack of an historical sense is proverbial and may well be attributed to the
attitude reflected generally in Indian philosophy that time is of secondary
importance and that the historical context of philosophical ideas can
have little relevance to their quality. The Indians possibly concentrated
more on absorbing and reflecting upon foreign influences and ideas in
order to fit them into their own mould and reproduce them in modified
forms. They were not concerned with names or origins; only the content
mattered.

49

Chapter II

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

UNTIL THE GREEK Cities of lonia were captured by Cyrus in 546 B.c., the
Greeks lived undisturbed by neighbouring powers. At first the Greek
cities offered little resistance and Persian domination was mild. The
Greeks were left to develop their own culture and institutions, except
for what they voluntarily adopted from the Persians, whose king was
looked upon by the distant Greeks as the supreme embodiment of earthly
power and glory. Later, however, the conflict became more serious. A
Persian punitive expedition against Athens and Eretria was defeated in
490 B.c. Athens became the champion of Greece, and fear of Persian
power compelled the Greeks to Organize into a nation. ‘They were unable
to achieve political unity, but, a cultural unity, with local divergences,
was developed. Thus began the great classical age of Greece. It was the
period of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Pericles, Herodotus, Sophocles
and Euripides, the Athenian democracy, and unparalleled prosperity.
During the fourth century B.C., however, internal strife and conflict

set in followed by chaos. Between 354 and 338 s.c. Philip of Macedonia
completed his conquest of Greece and uni
death two years later,

to become one of the
was stabilized and reo:

50

te
E
i

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

Indian contingents under the command of the Bactrian and Arachosian
satraps) at Gaugamela. Alexander’s victory was an exceptional feat, for
few empires in history have been as powerful as that of Darius, and
Alexander emerged as the unchallenged ruler of a vast empire stretching
from Greece well into Iran. The meteoric rise of Alexander marked a new
epoch in world history and introduced an era of Graeco-Macedonian
ascendancy which, though short-lived, left an indelible mark on Western
civilization. Few periods of European history have seen greater political
changes than the century and a half that followed the emergence of
Alexander’s power.'

Determined to conquer the eastern part of the Persian Empire and
India, Alexander with a Graeco-Persian army crossed the Hindu Kush,
invaded the Punjab in 326 B.c. and defeated, at heavy cost to himself,
its ruler Paurava (Porus). Alexander wanted to press eastward toward
the Ganges Valley and Magadha, but his troops refused to advance, for
they were too tired to face the powerful monarch of Magadha. They had
heard rumours of a vast nation Prasioi (Sanskrit Prachya, eastern) ruled
by a king named Xandrames with a mighty army. Alexander himself
was anxious to keep going till he reached the sea which he believed, as
did Aristotle, encircled the earth and communicated with the Caspian
and the Persian Gulf. He was also anxious to see the Ganges and the
area through which it flowed, because he had been told that the Ganges
was much more impressive than the Indus, the sheer magnitude of
which had already filled him with surprise, despite already having seen
the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Tigris: “No country he had hitherto
visited was so populous and well cultivated, or abounded in so many
valuable productions of nature and of art, as that part of India through
which he had led his army.”? And when he was informed of the even
greater riches and beauty of the country ahead, he was naturally eager
to continue on.

The enforced withdrawal from India was a shock to Alexander from
which he never recovered. He suffered a further serious blow when his
Most trusted commander drank himself to death. In the midsummer of
323 B.C. at the age of thirty-two, he fell ill; heavy drinking aggravated his
illness and resulted in his death.? Although extreme alcoholism was rare
in Greece, Alexander was much addicted to drinking and, according to

51

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Polycleitus of Larisa, was always accompanied to ee gece players,
both male and female, who drank with him until ay reak.

The military and political greatness of Alexander is beyond question,
and even before his early death he had become a legendary figure. Had
he lived longer, there is no telling what influences he might have brought
to bear on world history.’ He had become increasingly ambitious and
dreamed of conquering the world. He considered himself a divine hero
and employed his power ruthlessly to gain success and abacionee, Ina
state of anger and drunkenness, he murdered his friend Clitus with his
own hands, and his best general, Parmenion, was dispatched by hired
assassins. In the pursuit of power he had lost personal peace.’ If Alexander
was vainglorious, and at times cruel and vengeful, it was probably ie
legacy of his superstitious, scheming, and hate-ridden mother, Olympias:
Although only half-Greek himself, Alexander was full of the Greek spirit
of inquiry, having been tutored by Aristotle. In spite of the fact that
the Macedonians regarded themselves as Hellenes, the Greeks refused
to treat them as a part of the Greek nation and, indeed, called them
barbaroi. Aristotle himself was not, strictly speaking, a Greek, but came
from Stagirus in Chalcidiee, east of Macedonia.

Alexander was frustrated in his plans to advance further east, to
build great roads, and to set up sea communications, but he did succeed
in establishing a Graeco-Asian empire. Although this empire did not
survive his death, it left behind a bridge connecting the principal centres
of ancient civilizations. Across this bridge began a traffic in ideas and
culture, thus enriching the course of human history. His expedition to
India, in terms of cultural intercourse between Fast and West, can only
be compared to the discovery of a direct sea route to India by Vasco da
Gama. Like da Gama, Alexander did not discover a new country, no!

did he open up a forbid
cultural fusion, and gre:
relationships.®

den land, but he did inaugurate a new process of
atly increased and enhanced the existing cultur al

Alexander founded about Seventy new cities with the aim of creating —

a mixed Greek and Asian empire; of these Alexandria in Egypt was the
greatest, later becomin

g an important centre of commerce and culture
for e one on Roman worlds.” Aiming by Marriage to bring the
Asians and Greeks together in common military service and thus create

52

MBPS ca

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

a joint commonwealth, he took two Asian brides—Roxane, daughter of
Oxyartes of Bactria, and Statira, daughter of Darius from Iran—and more
than ten thousand of his troops including eighty of his principal associates,
such as Hephaestion and Seleucus, married Asian women. Naturally,
these Asian brides transmitted some of their culture to Greek families.*

On his Indian expedition Alexander was accompanied by a number
of scholars whose purpose was to acquire knowledge about ideas and
religions. His staff also surveyed the roads in the Asian areas, which led
to increasing traffic both in commerce and culture. Many of Alexander’s
companions and officers were men of high attainments in literature and
science. Some of them wrote their memoirs recording their impressions
of India. Whilst some wildly exaggerated tales received currency due to
inaccurate observation and imprecise writing, the Greeks learned much
about Indian thought and lore. Aristotle, having retired to Athens,
could not accompany Alexander but had sent in his stead his nephew
Callisthenes of Othlynthus, a philosopher and historian.” Anaxarchus,
a Democritean, and his pupil Pyrrhon (275 s.c.) who formed the
Pyrrhonian school of sceptic thought before the time of the Stoics and
Epicureans, are also said to have accompanied Alexander on his eastern
campaign. Alexander's first halt beyond the Indus was at the great seat
of Indian learning, Takshashila, a large and prosperous city from which
he sent his ultimatum to Porus.

Anxious to acquaint himself with Indian thought, Alexander made
contact with Indian sages and scholars. According to Arrian, he had
very much wanted one of the Indian ascetics to join him, “since he so
much admired their endurance.” The Indian ascetics, however, rejected
Alexander's overtures pointing out that his conquests meant nothing to
them and that they had no need of anything he had. An old Indian sage,
Dandamis, dismissed both offers of wealth and threats of death with
equal contempt. After this invitation had been rejected, Alexander finally
persuaded another Indian, Calanus, to accompany him." So keen was
Alexander to have Indian sages with him, that, having failed to persuade
more than one to join him, he began capturing many of them charging
that they had helped the enemies of the Macedonians.

Alexander's expedition appears to have made little impact on the
contemporary Indian mind, for no mention of the event occurs in the

53

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

literature of the period. It seems that India did not view the appearance
of Greeks on her soil with undue worry or fascination. The Greeks were
known to Indians under the Persian form of their name Yavana (also Yong
and Yonaka) which was the Sanskrit form of the Persian Yauna, which in
turn was a derivative of Ionian. The Indians did not even learn that the
Greeks called themselves Hellenes, and India received nothing of the
culture of their country from them." Indeed, Alexander’s expedition to
India has been described by scholars, such as E. B. Havell, as nothing
more than a mere raid, making little difference to India and leaving
behind no impression on Indian civilization. For the conditions “which
made Greek culture an inspiration for her Roman conquerors had no
counterpart in India. The Indo-Aryans, unlike the Romans, had their
classic literature, their epics and philosophy, before Athens was built...
and at the closest contact of Hellenic and Indo-Aryan culture the latter
had by far the greater vitality and creative power.”!? Havell points out,
as does Coomaraswamy, that no Greek inscriptions have yet been
discovered in India. Yet there are scholars, such as Weber, Windisch,
and Niese, who have claimed that Indian civilization was a by-product
of the Macedonian civilization. Whilst it is understandable that there
should have been a tendency in the West to exaggerate the influence of
Greece on India, it is fantastic to assert that “,.. we can say that Greek
culture in western Asia, caused by Alexander, led to the growth there
of the idea of spiritual unity, as pointed out by Christianity, and that by
inspiring Chandragupta to form the Maurya Empire Alexander caused
the spread of Buddhism and perhaps the union of China under the
first. Han Dynasty.” In one statement all considerations of historical
evidence, context, and chronology have been subordinated to wishful
thinking.

The only permanent effect of Alexander’s raid seems to have
been the establishment of a number
Uttarapatha.“ Even the short-
establish was copied from the

of Yavana settlements in the
lived administration Alexander tried to

Achaemenian model not unfamiliar to
India. Furthermore, negotiations between the Indians and Greeks were

channelled through Persian interpreters. An indirect political result of
Alexander’s incursion, however, was the destruction of the petty states of
the northwestern parts of India, thus paving the way for the rise of the

54

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

Maurya Empire. Although on the whole the country was left undisturbed,
one cannot deny that Hellenism had been brought to the very doorstep
of India and that the centuries-old indirect and sporadic contact between
Indians and Greeks was thereafter made direct, extensive, and close,
leading to an intensification of the processes of cultural interaction.
These processes were in no small measure sustained and advanced by the
subsequent emergence of the Indo-Greek kingdoms in northwest India.

The death of Alexander in 323 B.c. precipitated the Greek world
into an emergency for which no provision had been made, and serious
repercussions followed. Alexander, who even in his own short life span
had come to be known as the Great, was in fact a restless person who
preferred conquest to the consolidation of power, and, possibly, even war
for its own sake. He gave, in any case, less attention to the organization
and administration of the territories he conquered than “to purely military
problems and matters affecting the basis of his own personal power.”
He gathered a vast empire stretching from the Aegean Sea to the Indus,
but, if he had lived longer, it is said that he would not have known what
to do with it, except conquer more. Disregard of organization, coupled
with Alexander’s extreme concentration of power in his own hands and
the ruthless execution of his expansionist designs, left behind no powerful
body to effectively fill the vacuum created by his death. Disaffection,
dissensions, and distrust had already exacerbated relations between his
commanders in his own lifetime. In the latter years of his life, Alexander
had become far more despotic and tyrannical, even more so than he had
been in the early days when he had destroyed the ancient city of Thebes to
warn the Greeks not to repeat their efforts to throw off the Macedonian
yoke. Having styled himself a god, he had come to lean heavily on the
Persian aristocracy. Old friends were considered more dangerous than
adversaries, and they were promptly eliminated on the slightest suspicion.
His progress “through Asia was marked by court intrigues, political trials,
and the liquidation of subversive elements. His last two years saw a reign
of terror among his high officers and provincial governors, and his death
may have anticipated a major rebellion in Greece.”!° The absence of a
legal heir, or a recognized successor, Or an outstanding soldier provided
the opportunity for Alexander's generals to eliminate the remaining
members of his family, including his posthumously born son, and to fight

55

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

it out for power amongst themselves. Personal ambition dominated their
devotion to the dynasty. It was fortunate for them that at this time no
foreign power was strong enough or aggressive enough to take advantage
of their conflict. A prolonged struggle for domination inevitably followed
(ca. 322 to 281 B.c.), and Alexander’s loosely knit empire split into a
number of component parts, each ruled by a Macedonian dynast with all
the pomp of monarchy. Of these, three kingdoms were most important;
Syria including the eastern part of Alexander’s kingdom, Egypt, and
Macedonia. The largest and the richest was Syria, where Seleucus
established his dynasty with his capital in the great city of Antioch; the
Ptolemies, descendants of Ptolemy Lagus, ruled Egypt with Alexandria
as their capital, and controlled the sea; and Macedonia, of which Greece
was still a dependency, after much bloodshed and strife passed on to
the descendants of Antigonus. Seleucus tried to expand into India in
306 B.c. but had to retreat before the forces of the powerful empire of
Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryan king probably married a Greek
princess, acquired large parts of the former Greek-Asian kingdom, and
received at his court a Greek envoy, Magasthenes, who has left behind
invaluable information on the India of his day.

The founders of these dynasties were soldiers who were principally
concerned with retaining their power and who were “generally expected to
marry their sisters to keep the stock pure.”!” Macedonia was the original
national monarchy, and the other two were in a way usurpers. Each of
them, especially at the beginning of their rise to power, had ambitions
of gaining absolute Supremacy over the others and restoring Alexander's
empire. Consequently, these kingdoms fought themselves to exhaustion
before the Romans, who had begun to emerge as a dominant international
power during this Period, established their Sovereignty over them.
st to fall to Rome in 167 B.C., and it was followed
by Egypt in 30 s.c. The Syrian kingdom, plagued by rebellions and
i » pursued a precanous existence in varying degrees of
independence between the Romans on the one side and the Parthians, the
inheritors of the Achaemenian Empire’ and the Mauryans on the other,
until the rise of the Arab power in the seventh century. But for all practical
purposes, the Syrian kingdom ceased to be important after about 160 B.C.

‘These powers are commonly called “Hellenistic,” a term originally

56

4

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

applied to non-Greeks who admired and copied Greek civilization, and
the period of their independent existence (323 to 30 B.c.) is similarly
designated.

Whatever the political consequences of these conflicts and strifes may
have been, they certainly caused large-scale movements of peoples, as
distinct from armies and hordes of nomads, from one area to the other.
Thus, people living in distant regions came into closer contact with each
other and accelerated the processes of cultural intercourse. Asia became
a land of opportunity for Greeks. Greek soldiers were soon followed by
Greek traders and settlers in large numbers to Egypt and the far corners of
the former Persian Empire. Inevitably their Asian counterparts responded
in a similar manner. Consequently, the following Hellenistic Age saw
the development of thought, both scientific and philosophical, in which
a variety of national traditions were freely mixed.

The Mauryan kings, especially the first three, maintained close
diplomatic relations with the Hellenistic kingdoms. Syria, which was the
home province of Seleucus and his successors, was in close diplomatic
contact with the Mauryan Empire of India. Megasthenes lived at the
court of Chandragupta, and Deimachos came on an ambassadorial
mission to King Bindusara.!* The Thirteenth Rock Edict of Asoka refers
to five Greek rulers—Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonas, Magas, and
Alexander—and there are indications that Asoka’s missionary activities
had reached Greek states. A. S. Altekar suggests that “Asoka’s Buddhist
missions were operating in western Asia, Egypt and Macedonia and
the rise of the Essene sect, to which Jesus belonged, has been attributed
to the influence of the Buddhist missions.”” Asoka’s Greek-Armenic
inscription recently excavated at Karidahar would further strengthen
the view that there was close contact between Mauryan India and the
Hellenistic world, and that there must have been a well-established
colony of Greek settlers or Greek-speaking people to justify inscriptions
in Greek. Megasthenes tells us that there was a separate department
at Pataliputra to look after foreigners, which would indicate the usual
presence of a number of foreigners, such as envoys, tourists, and traders
in the Mauryan Empire.

After the decline of the Mauryan Empire, Indo-Greek principalities
emerged in the northwestern region of India, providing yet another bridge

Si

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

between India and the Hellenistic world. Alexander’s Indian expedition,
followed as it was by the rise of the Seleucid kingdom in Western
Asia, created settlements of Greeks—Indo-Greeks or Yavana—in the
northwestern regions of India, although there is considerable evidence,
both literary and numismatic, that even before Alexander’s advent,
Indo-Greek colonies had existed in this area. Whilst the Mauryans were
powerful, the Indo-Greeks remained subdued. ‘They were far removed
from the centre of Mauryan power, and the influence of the Seleucids
had always been at best precarious. The decline of the Mauryan power
on the one hand, and the rise of the Parthians challenging the Seleucid
supremacy on the other, made it possible for these Indo-Greeks to
set up their own independent or semi-independent states. By about
250 B.c. they had disavowed the Seleucid Empire which at that time
covered Persia and Syria, and forty years later their independence was
recognized by Antiochus. In about 190 8.c. Demetrius I had established
his authority in the Indus region and for the rest of the century the area
temained under Indo-Greek rule. By this time, these peoples had become
essentially Indian in religion and thought. Buddhism had been prevalent
in India for well over two centuries, and its exponents had developed an
exceptionally dynamic character, a highly sophisticated creed, and, under

urvived for some two centuries
ellenistic and Indian history.
n India and gradually became
tween India and the Hellenistic

, and was regarded as enormously important
to Seleucia. The outburst of prosperi

and 150 s.c., and the heavy i
exactly coincides with the gre
Demetrius to Menander. En

58

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

India were exhibited by Antiochus IV in his triumph at Daphne in 166
p.c." The Indo-Greek trade was so brisk that Parthia, through which the
land trade passed, also grew wealthy.” The Greek word drachma passed
into Indian languages through Prakrit dramma to dam.

Although no trace of Greek architecture has ever been found in either
India or in the borderlands, India is indebted to Greece for improvements
in coinage, astronomy, and sculpture.” Greek sculpture appealed to
the Indian imagination, and the Gandhara school of sculpture, which
flourished in the northwestern parts of India and Central Asia, is a fine
example of this assimilation. The sculpture is usually described by the
name of the ancient territory where it primarily flourished, Gandhara, the
capital of which was Purusapura (modern Peshawar), although other finds
of this art form in Khotan and in the vicinity of Kabul render this title
somewhat misleading. Gandhara sculpture is also described as Graeco-
Buddhist after the statues of the Buddha cast in Graeco-Roman style,
although this sculpture really developed only after the Greek domination
of this part of India was in the historical past, and its principal patrons
were the Sakas and the Kushans who came from Central Asia.

The precise chronology of Gandhara sculpture is uncertain and the
questions posed by its different styles are an art historian’s delight. The
school began to emerge in the middle of the first century B.C. after the
decline of Greek power and before the rise of the Kushans. It reached
its peak roughly between 50 and 200 A.D., coinciding with the reign of
the great Kushan kings. None of the sculptures found is later than 400.
The best period of Gandhara art was contemporaneous with the Flavian
and Antonine periods in western Asia and Europe, and with the reliefs
at Amaravati in South India, as well as with many sculptures at Mathura.
The Gandhara school, however, stands apart from the main current of
the evolution of Indian art. The technique used is, no doubt, basically
Hellenic, but it is modified by Iranian, Scythian, and Indian traditions
and trends, for the period during which Gandhara art evolved witnessed
the advent not only of the Greeks, but of other foreigners who ruled these
territories. About the beginning of the first century B-C-, the Indo-Greeks
had been overpowered by the Parthians and Sakas, a warlike people of
Scythian extraction. They ruled over the northwestern parts of India
until the end of the first century A.D. The new invaders, called Yueh-

59

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

chih by the Chinese and Kushans by the Indians, first settled briefly in
Bactria and in the valley of the Oxus; they then penetrated into the Indus
territory. Their empire, which attained its peak under Kaniska, was on
the crossroads of the Hellenistic, Persian, Chinese, and Indian cultures,
and in terms of cultural intercourse it was one of the most productive
periods in ancient history.”

The themes depicted by the Gandhara school are purely Indian and
almost exclusively Buddhist, and the image of the Buddha in numerous
guises dominates the compositions. A major explanation of this appears
to be that in the area concerned Indian cultural and religious influences
had been at work for a long time, and Gandhara art, devoted to Indian
culture but employing an eclectic technique, really represents a stage
in the process of assimilation of the Greeks in this region.” Once
Indianization had commenced, the Greeks placed their artistic skill
at the service of a foreign religion, an act unparalleled in Hellenistic
history, and helped create for it a new art form. Whether the Greeks
were Buddhist or not, they worked for the Buddhist world. “Nothing
can be more eloquent of the Indianization which was taking place and
of the attitude of Greeks generally to Buddhism; it has been well said
that the art of Gandhara was born of Buddhist piety utilising Yavana
technique.” Coomaraswamy, however, does not view Gandhara art
very kindly. He regards it as a phase of Roman provincial art mixed with
Indian elements, which gives the impression of profound insincerity and
only faintly expresses the spiritual energy of Buddhist thought.”

The Gandhara artist’s Portrayal of the Buddha in human form was in
itself an innovation, probably Greek, and to render him in terms of the
Graeco-Roman divine figures with their typical features, such as robed in
a Roman toga with wavy hair, was wholly foreign to Indian notions. The
Gandhara artist turned the Buddha into an Apollo, but the image bore all

the iconographic marks and traits of the Indian tradition, all the canonical

symbols traditionally belonging to him, and the reliefs depicting scenes
from the Jatakas remained uni

changed even in the minutest details. The
Gandhara image of the Bodhisattva starving himself to death is perhaps
“the most incongruous example of the mixture of India and Greece-
Here a thoroughly un-Greek theme has been rendered in an equally
un-Indian style.”#

60

ee

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

Whilst the influence of the Gandhara style did not penetrate India
proper, it did continue to influence the art of Central Asia until the
destruction of the Buddhist monasteries in the second half of the fifth
century by the Ephthalites or White Huns, who, having overpowered
Persia, advanced towards India. But, in its way, it deeply impressed
Indian and Asian cultures. The iconographical, rather than the aesthetic,
representation of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and scenes from the Buddha
legend gripped the Indian imagination and thereafter it travelled with
Buddhism to Indonesia, Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Ceylon, and other
Buddhist settlements. Through Central Asia it penetrated to China,
Japan, and Tibet. Consequently, countless statues of the Buddha and
the Bodhisattvas are found in the Buddhist world, many of which are
excellent examples of the exquisite local artistic traditions.

Vedic religion did not provide for idol-worship and there were no
temples in vedic India. In vedic times, conception of a personal deity, which
is the indispensable psychological basis of iconographic representation, did
not exist. Although Visnu, of whom many iconographical representations
are found, is a vedic deity and his personality is vividly described in a few
hymns, the earliest iconographical representations of him (dated 401) are
two four-armed figures standing one on either side of the door guarding
the Chandragupta cave at Udayagiri.” The teachers of the upanishadic
period were only interested in liberation from the realm of name and
form, and they did not ask artists to represent sages or saviours. They
were so disinterested in external appearances that their strict monism
was not conducive to iconographical reproduction. Early Buddhism
was strongly opposed to the Buddha being represented by statues. In
Indian art the Buddha’s presence was indicated by the Bo-tree, or the
wheel of law, or some other symbol. For centuries Indian Buddhists felt
a repugnance to depicting the Buddha in human form. Even the great
royal patron of Buddhism, Asoka, who experimented with various styles
of representational art and pioneered the growth of lithic art in India, felt
neither the need nor the compulsion to cast a single image of the Buddha
or his disciples." But Greek influence in Bactria was strong and statues
of Apollo—tike statues of the Bodhisattvas—began to appear, and these
Were soon followed by images of the Buddha himself. This, in turn, gave
tremendous impetus to image-worship amongst the Hindus, which has

61

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

come to form such a dominant feature of popular Hinduism that images
are to Hindu worshippers what diagrams are to geometricians.

Opinion, however, is divided as to whether image-worship was
practiced by the Indians before Alexander's campaign or not. It should
be noted that in the popular religions of the early Indians a strong
anthropomorphic undercurrent was present. It remained subdued under
the dominance of the vedic religion, but later it received impetus under
the theistic devotional cults. There is epigraphic data revealing Vaisnava
shrines in the various parts of India during the pre-Christian and early
Christian periods, and it may be that very early images, of which there
is definite evidence, have been lost because of their perishable materials,
Finally, this innate anthropomorphism and iconolatry asserted itself
with vigour and found expression in images of the divinities or saviours,
especially the Buddha, during the period of Mathura art, which, although
contemporary with if not anterior to the Gandhara school, had its own
independent and unbroken sequence of development. And it has been
argued that the Gandhara Buddhas had little or no influence, and that
all the later Buddha statues were derived from the purely Indian art of
Mathura.

The isolation of India has never been absolute, and Mathura, being
the converging point of ancient routes from all directions, was one
of the principal areas visited by travellers. Whilst Mathura art has a
long and glorious tradition of continuous and autonomous evolution

Occupying a very important place in the history of Indian art, no one —

has dated the Mathura Buddhas before the Christian era, and they are
usually assigned to the second century. Thus, in chronological order
the Gandhara Buddha is older than the Mathura Buddha, When this
order of priority is considered together with the knowledge that the
Mathura artists were aware of the contemporary Gandhara tradition, the
possibility of Mathura having borrowed the idea of Buddha statues from
Gandhara becomes very strong. Features alien to the Indian tradition
and in conformity with that of Gandhara, such as drapery hanging i"
curved folds from the figures of the Buddha and certain motifs such as
the woman and the acanthus, appeared on some of the Mathura figures of
the later period. It appears that Mathura art developed its own tradition
of iconographical representation, but the Gandhara influence accelerated

62

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

this process and gave it a new dimension by introducing the expression
of the divine image in human form. Between them, these two schools
introduced the figures of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas into Buddhist art.
In this enterprise the Gandhara school may well have been the dominant
partner, for it is extremely unlikely that without its inspiration, direction,
and competition the Mathura school could have, on its own, given rise
to mass worship of images. Although this cult had existed in some parts
of India before the advent of the Greeks, it remained on the whole
insignificant and fragmentary until the Greeks gave it impetus.

The Greek influence on Indian coins and gems is undoubted. The
datable history of Indian coinage begins in 600 B.c. with silver and copper
punch-marked coins.” These coins were primitive in conception, irregular
in shape, and crude in execution, and whilst important to historians, their
aesthetic value is negligible. With the penetration of Hellenistic, Roman,
and Parthian influences through the Indo-Greeks, the form and character
of Indian coins changed radically. Artistically interesting, the chaste and
elegant workmanship of the early coins from the second century B.C.
to the first century A.D. clearly reveals the Hellenistic tradition. With
the passage of time, the Hellenistic influence weakened and Indian
characteristics began to assert themselves. However, the Indians learned
from the Greeks the art of embossing both sides of their coins.

A large number and variety of engraved gems have been found all over
northwest India, and these are undoubtedly Hellenistic in conception
and workmanship. The motifs and themes employed are Greek and
the gems often bear legends in Greek and early Brahmi or Kharoshthi
scripts. In the first and second centuries the Greek inspiration gave way
to the Roman.

Yavana bodyguards, engineers, and girls were in demand in India.
Even in the extreme southern Tamil country, the Greeks were sought
after. In the very early Tamil literature of the Sangam period (first
three centuries), clear references are found to Yavana traders, soldiers,
Palace guards, night-watchmen of the streets, and lamps of Yavana
Workmanship. Kalidasa (fifth century) in one of his plays represents the
King as being accompanied by a body of Yavana women. These girls had
already appeared much earlier in the plays of Bhasa. This is confixmed
by other evidence, including Greek. Amongst the articles which Indian

63

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

kings would buy, as listed in the Perip/us, occurs “good looking Virgins
for concubines” and it appears to have been a standing order. Poseidoniys
also testifies to this traffic in girls.

Greek influence on the Indian theatre has also been suggested, for
the first curtain is called Yavanika (the Greek curtain). It is also claimed
that the Indians borrowed from Greek drama their ideas of the screen,
the parasite, and the clown, but there is little evidence to support the
assertion that the Greek tragedies and Homer’s works were known in
early India, and Yavanika could not have been borrowed from the Greek
stage for there the curtain was not used. Although Greek dramas were
not acted against a curtain, Roman, and possibly Greek, mimes were, and
Yavanika may suggest the influence of Greek mime on Indian drama. A
more likely origin of this word would appear in a Prakrit modification
of the Sanskrit word Yamanika from the root yam, meaning “to bind,”
“to fix,” used for a curtain with ropes to fix it.”

By the time Greek influence had emerged in India, Hindu drama
had already assumed a distinctive personality with a highly evolved
form. Indeed, the art of the drama seems to have been well established
in India from the earliest times. Apart from the tradition of the divine
origin of Sanskrit drama, there is in the Rig Veda a remarkable series of
dialogue-hymns with a dramatic element, such as the famous “Pururavas
and Urvasi” hymn.*4 The grammarian Panini refers to acting in the fifth
century B.c., and in the fourth, Kautilya describes theatrical companies.
In the art of puppet plays, which certainly appears to have developed
a couple of centuries before Christ and possibly even earlier, a point
of culmination can be seen in the development of drama, as well as an
impetus for it. At the Sitabenga and Jogimara Caves in the Ramgarh
Hills in Bihar, inscriptions can be found dating from the third century

B.C. which suggest the existence of a developed dramatic art, and at |

Sitabenga Cave, even a sort of crude stage has been excavated in the rock.

The earliest available specimens of literary drama are found, however, in

the fragments of some Buddhist dramas of Asvaghosa, the court poet 2

Kaniska, and the earliest available dramatic works are the thirteen plays
ascribed to Bhasa (ca. 200-300).

Basic differences in approach and style between Indian and Greek
drama are also revealed upon close scrutiny. It was during the fifth

64

—

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

century B.C. that drama emerged in Greece as a highly developed art
form. Furthermore, whilst the Hindu theatre was intimate and restricted
to a limited audience of scarcely four hundred spectators, the Greek
amphitheatre could seat twenty thousand. Greek drama was not divided
into acts, but the Sanskrit natakas (plays) had definite divisions ranging
from four to ten acts. The unities so rigidly adhered to by the Greeks
were unknown to Sanskrit dramatists either in theory or practice. For
example, the unities of classical drama were not strictly observed by
Sanskrit dramatists, although each act was usually limited to “one course
of the sun” and each play to one year, but unity of place was not regarded
as a necessity, and subsidiary plots entwined the main trunk of Sanskrit
plays. A Hindu play was composed expressly to mark a certain occasion,
such as a coronation, triumphal procession, religious festival, or marriage,
and was generally not revived after the occasion had passed. The Greek
concepts of tragedy and early Attic comedy, as in Aristophanes, were
totally alien to the spirit of Indian drama. The latter in general is more
romantic, mythological, and metaphysical than the Greek. However,
Indians must have had opportunities to watch Greek plays, as a scene
from Antigone appears on a fragment of a locally manufactured vase
found near Peshawar.

A few common Greek words, such as the words for pen, ink, book,
and camel found their way into Sanskrit, and a few Sanskrit words
reached the West, but on the whole there was surprisingly little exchange
of language.

It is also somewhat surprising that India, who had borrowed freely
from Persia and had never been averse to foreign ideas because of the all-
inclusive nature of her thought, should have refrained from profiting by
Greek art. A possible explanation may be found in the different concepts
of art and beauty held by the Greeks and Indians. The Greeks loved
beauty for its own sake and found not only joy but truth in it, whereas
the ancient Indians, whilst loving beauty, sought some deeper significance
in their work, some vision of the inner truth as they saw it. Whilst the
Greeks had a passion for form, the Indians were obsessed by the formless.
Indian art was much too firmly embedded in Indian religious thought and
its metaphysical basis to find an affinity with Greek art. Another reason
for India’s failure to profit from Greek art may have been the inability of

65

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the Indo-Greeks to transmit Greek influence to India, for they were only
remotely in contact with Hellenic culture and, in fact, became Indianizeq
themselves during the period of Mauryan domination. Furthermore, the
Greeks came to India not with the zeal of missionaries but on military
campaigns and remained to carry on commerce.

Discussing in some detail this interaction between Greek and Indian
civilizations during the Indo-Greek period, W. W. Tarn, a great admirer
of Greek civilization and of its intrinsic vitality, observes that although
two peoples living side by side for a long time on good terms must be
mutually influenced, India adopted little of Greek culture. And whatever
little she did adopt, did not last. In explanation he suggests that “Indian
civilization was strong enough to hold its own against Greek civilization,
but, except in the religious sphere, was seemingly not strong enough to
influence it as Babylonia did; nevertheless we may find reason for thinking
that in certain respects India was the dominant partner.”* Indians living
in Greek principalities as Greek citizens did not even take Greek names,
as was common enough amongst Asian people at the time. They kept
their own customs and culture. Greek rule was eventually overthrown
everywhere and by the middle of the first century nothing of them was
left. Tarn says that “... except for Buddha-statues, the history of India
would in all essentials have been precisely what it has been had Greeks
never existed”36

As the era of classical antiquity and Greek exclusiveness declined,
an enervated Greek culture was accorded rejuvenating influences by
Eastern cultures. The limited world of the city-state was transformed
into large-scale government, the Greek polis was replaced by the
world-state, and a new conception of world power was born. The old
distinctions between the Greeks and the barbarians were replaced by
world culture, and Hellenism, under the impact of Asian culture, became
elastic and cosmopolitan. The repercussions of this change were almost

all-embracing. Social and economic life had to be remodelled, political
institutions and religious beliefs had to

to be made with new ideas. Conce
monarchy,

be recast, and experiments had
pts of a universal state, universal
universal law, and universal religions and philosophies bega”
to spread. During this period there developed the conception of an
emperor's divinity and absolute monarchy which played an outstanding

66

i
5

|

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

part in European thought and political life. It enshrined Julius Caesar
in a state cult as “Divus Julius”; it inspired Augustus (the assumption of
this name, which has strong associations with divinity, by Octavian is
in itself significant); it helped the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire
during the early mediaeval period; and it later led to the extravagant
claims of the Tudor and Stuart kings in England, the Bourbons in
France, and the Czars in Russia. The theory originated in an age in which
religion, theology, and politics were inextricably mixed, and it came to
be articulated in mediaeval times during the conflict between Pope and
Emperor to assert the claims of sovereignty of the latter, and to find a
positive theoretical support for the rejection of papal claims to spiritual,
as well as temporal, overlordship.

It is commonly suggested that Persia provided Alexander with
the inspiration for this theory of the divine right of kings, for after
his remarkable military successes he pronounced himself a god. It is
impossible, however, to obtain unanimity on a question which cuts deeply
into national pride, but the dispute can be narrowed. The widespread
cult of the divine rulers, which progressively developed into a dominant
force in Europe, was entirely an internal growth evolved in a Western
environment. Alexander had realized it, if at all, only briefly and almost
in passing, in western Asia and the Levant. Taylor’s contention that
the monarchy which Alexander established was itself a combination of
Greek and Macedonian traditions and the Persian conception of the
king as an absolute power, the ideal representative of his people in every
secular and religious office, is historically invalid.’ Tarn, for example,
strongly disputed Taylor’s assertion that the Persians worshipped their
kings and that their practice had influenced Alexander in his claim to
divinity. Consequently, Taylor partly revised his earlier opinion but
maintained that the Persians had a form of ruler-worship, which must
be considered in discussing the Hellenistic ruler cult, thus presumably
conceding that the evidence of direct Persian influence on Alexander's
deification is negligible.

E The Achaemenian kings were not gods and did not claim divine
tights. In Egypt there existed a cult according the king a divine status
and authority. But the influence of Egypt on later Greek king-worship,
andin the transformation of the Macedonian monarchy into a Ptolemaic

67

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

god-kingship, seems to have been Sonnperetialy unimportant, TF the
Persians prostrated themselves before thes king, it vas a perfectly
respectable form of court etiquette which in pe way implied worship,
and which has parallels in many other countries, such as kowtowing in
China. Kings, modern or ancient, have always demanded and received
from their subjects devoted respect far above that which is normally given
to an elected head of state. King-worship is in reality nothing more than
a form of flattery. Before, during, and after the Hellenistic age, and even
in modern times, king-worship has always been at best deference, and
ordinarily hypocritical and insincere—a political gimmick. Seldom have
people anywhere seriously believed in the divinity of kings, although they
may have acknowledged it in helpless dependence on his power, from
fear of punishment, in the expectation of reward, or simply as a trivial
irrelevancy, immaterial one way or the other. It is also doubtful whether
even the kings, who never tired of claiming it, seriously believed in it
beyond its efficacy as a political device to command blind obedience.
Hence, to regard the Persian custom of prostration as indicative of
king-worship is erroneous. It is also true that Macedonians and Greeks
found this custom repugnant. In fact, Callisthenes, who had done more
than anyone else to spread Alexander’s fame through his writings, who
had even extravagantly invented the story that the oracle of Apollo at
Dityma had broken its long silence to endorse the oracle of Ammon that
Alexander was the son of Zeus, and who had supported Alexander in his

claims to divinity, refused to submit himself to this Persian custom even
at the risk of Alexander’s displeasure,

which followed soon after on a charge

If in Persia and Egypt there was so
to believe in a single universal society
king who could receive undivided ob
hardly be taken as constituting indi
worship. In return the king receive
To receive adoration is not to be a
long before Alexander, some Greek
been worshipped during their lifeti

thus courting certain execution
of alleged conspiracy.
me evidence that men had comè

edience from his subjects, it could
sputable proof of prevalent king-
d devotion, loyalty, and gratitude:

tulers had claimed divinity and had

Duris of Sames, tells us that the Spartan leader Lysander, the first ma”

68

mes, although this may have been 2:
political measure rather than an official cult.® The Hellenistic historiah |

under the authority of a powerful |

divine incarnation. In Greece to |

i

|
!

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

to gain widespread power in the Hellenic world, was also the first man
to be worshipped, and that he would very likely be a man “to whom
Alexander might naturally look back as a forerunner of his power in
the Greek world.” The tyrant Heraclea (363-352 B.c.), intoxicated
with power and wealth, called himself the son of Zeus and thought of
himself as Zeus in person. He used his divine pretensions deliberately
to strengthen his tyrannical rule.

Of course, in contrast to the Semites, who markedly distinguished
between God and man, the Greeks conceived gods in human form and
elevated men to the rank of gods. It was common practice in Greece to
promote founders of cities to the rank of hero and to offer them “hero-
worship” after their death, although in later times the term “hero” came
to be used for men whom death had removed from the envy and rivalry of
their companions. But there were some men—such as Dion, given heroic
honours in 356 B.c. by the Syracusans—who were accorded this status in
their lifetime. Homer, certainly, uses the Greek word heros freely for his
heroes while they were still alive. Hero-worship—for example the cult of
Hercules and of Ammon—was quite common in Greece, and the distance
between hero-worship and king-worship surely must be a short one.

It is true, however, that the worship of kings by Greek cities was
somewhat different from the official cults instituted by the kings
themselves. In Persia too there was no such official cult at the time. The
oracle of Ammon, which had pronounced Alexander to be the son of
Zeus, was well known in the Greek world for its incorruptibility, and
Alexander, like all Greeks, believed in it and insisted on its validity.
Lysander sought its aid unsuccessfully in his efforts to give himself
divinity. Alexander’s father, Philip, was deified by some of his followers,
and Plato was similarly honoured by his scholars. Aristotle, Alexander's
tutor, argued in a famous passage of the Politics, presumably with
Alexander in mind, that there might exist in a state an individual so
pr €-eminent in political insight and virtue that he should be followed as

a god among men” and for whom there was no law, because it would
be wrong to treat a person, so unequalled in virtue and political capacity,
as an equal. He should not be a member of the state at all; he should be
above it. So Alexander’s deification, even if it had received any impens
from the Egyptian or Persian examples, had deeper roots ia SER

69

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

concept and practice. Sir Ernest Barker put it clearly that “However
foreign it may seem to the Greek idea of the state as a free association
of citizens, the conception of the deified ruler was none the less Tooted
in Greek habits of thought; and the actual deification of Alexander may
be traced among the Ionian Greeks in the beginning of his campaign
before he touched the soil of Egypt or of Persia.” In addition to Egypt,
Greece also began and perpetuated the deification of rulers. For a full
half-century after Alexander’s death no ruler claimed divinity for himself
but, during this interval, “many Greek communities voted of their own
accord divine honours (temples, images, altars, priests, processions,
games, sacrifices) to their rulers.” There was nothing oriental in this
king-worship, it was a purely Greek political phenomenon. To the
common man the power of a king was self-evident whilst that of a god
had to be accepted on trust.

In a recent ‘reassessment of Alexander, E. Badian has attempted to
explain Alexander’s claims to divinity in terms of his growing insanity.
He suggests that the severe psychological impact on him caused by his
failures in India led Alexander to discover the insecurity of power, which
all his scheming could not overcome, and this in turn drove him to seek
refuge in the greater exercise of power, and finally to seek and believe in
his own divinity. His success in his purges and in the Susa marriages and

his dealings with the mutineers only increased the resulting instability _

and led him to ask for absolute authority, like that of a god dispensing
the fate of mortals.

He had always liked and encouraged the story that he was the son of the god

the Greeks identified with Zeus and whose

> tor psychological and not fe litical reasons:
As for the Greeks, they had to obey.‘ gt not for po

70

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

Considering that stories were afloat even during his own lifetime
which cast doubt on his paternity—that Alexander was not the son
of Philip but the begotten son of a god—it would seem logical that
Alexander should have been anxious to establish his divinity and establish
his kinship with Zeus-Ammon. Tarn, however, who took a view of
Alexander that was somewhat romantically coloured, says that Alexander
never called himself son of Ammon, resented being called so, and that he
similarly never called himself son of Zeus, although he allowed others to
call him so. He became god of his empire for entirely political reasons.”
Whether he was being vainglorious or Machiavellian would make little
difference to the main argument that Alexander introduced the element
of divinity into kingship.

An historical reason, which has not often been emphasized, for the
currency of the cult of king-worship may have been that of the three
kingdoms which acceded to Alexander's heritage only Macedonia had
a legal right to this heritage. The Seleucids and Ptolemies were illegal
intruders or usurpers. They naturally desired some basis for their power
other than force, and this they found in making themselves divine
rulers. The Seleucids became gods after death—although later divine
status was bestowed upon living Seleucids as it was upon the Roman
Emperors—but the Ptolemies, following the practice of the Pharaohs,
became gods during their lifetime.

Besides the new concepts of kingship and kingdoms, the Hellenistic
age saw the development of the universal philosophies of Stoicism
and Epicureanism, the two most profound systems of antiquity to
emerge after Aristotle’s death. The popularity of mystery cults, such
as the Eleusinian and the Orphic, also increased. The chief feature of
this period was that as philosophy and science parted ways, philosophy
and religion united. The Hellenistic age, especially the period between
the foundation of the Lyceum about 325 B.c. and the end of the third
century, saw the transformation of Greek science from an untidy heap of
scattered observations into systematic disciplines. In some branches, such
as mathematics and astronomy, it reached a level that was not attained
again until the sixteenth century. Giving expression to the newly emerged
world consciousness in Greece, the two chief philosophical systems of

71

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the period—the Stoic and the Epicurean—revived the old Principles of
Ionian monotheism.

As an inevitable consequence of Alexander’s conquest, much of Greek
thought was rendered obsolete and useless, especially those theories of
morals and of social organization which were the most typically classical
and which taught that happiness in the highest sense was possible for
members of limited and self-governing societies. Now the very structure
and nature of society underwent change; the sovereign city-state ceased
to exist. With the expanding state, the horizons of the mind also
widened. For the first time in Greek history, Greek institutions stood
exposed to rational criticism and traditional ways of life were subjected
to the pressures of cosmopolitan culture. Also for the first time in Greek
history, “it mattered little where a man had been born or what his ancestry
was: of the men who dominated Athenian intellectual life in this age,
Aristotle and Theophrastus, Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus were all
of them foreigners; only Epicurus was of Athenian stock, though by
birth a colonial,”

For a time Greek philosophy kept its concern for the ordering
of human life in accordance with the earlier concept, but it became
increasingly interested in the individual rather than the community.
‘The process of change was initiated by the nihilistic pronouncements
of Pyrrhon (ca. 360-270 B-C.) who, together with Anaxarchus, had

accompanied Alexander to India. He questioned the validity of existing

presuppositions; for him the only certainty was that of no certainty at
all. He declared that definite kn

owledge of any subject was impossible
and that the principal aim of man was to lead a virtuous life. He wrote
no works except a poem addres

sed to Alexander, but his philosophical
system was recorded by his pupi

did not expand greatly, the
forerunner of the Stoic an
the Stoic philosophy was
(335-263 B.C.), who est
encompassing logic, epistemology,
taught a natural unity of men amon
community with all peoples and go
of freedom from physical appetite

Pyrrhonian scepticism may be regarded as#
d Epicurean schools. Only a short time late!
introduced into Athens by Zeno of Citium

physics, and ethics. Stoicism, which
gst themselves, a moral and spir jtul
ds, and that happiness was the result
s and of obedience to the will of the

72

L Timon of Philius. Although his school

ablished a complete system of philosophy —

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

gods, was the most inspiring of Hellenistic philosophies and by far the
most dominant. Its teachings exerted a greater influence on the lives
of men and the development of states than either the Academy or the
Lyceum.”

Zeno came to Athens from Cyprus but he was a Phoenician. The
population of his native city, where a number of Asian relics have been
excavated, included settlers from Phoenicia and his mother tongue was
Phoenician. In the beginning his followers were known as Zenonians
but they later came to be known as Stoics because he used to discourse
promenading up and down the colonnade or porch (stoa) of Peisianax.
Not only was he a Phoenician but three of his immediate successors—
Heraclides, Antipater, and Zeno of Tarsus—also came from Phoenicia,
having been born at Tarsus, on the coast of Cilicia, which had become a
kind of outpost of Stoicism. Considering that all of them came from the
west Asian territory, which at the time was a principal meeting-ground
between Asia and Greece, it is not unreasonable to assume that some
sections of Zeno’s philosophy, particularly those which sharply depart
from classical Greek thought and resemble Indian doctrines, may have
been influenced by the latter. Some scholars, however, in an effort to
show historical and natural continuity have suggested that Stoicism was
an attempt to simplify Aristotle’s views on metaphysics, psychology,
and ethics. It is unnecessary to stretch one’s imagination in accepting
the view which suggests historical continuity, because alien ideas are
seldom imported wholesale and seldom supplant existing systems of
thought in a well-developed society. Alien ideas certainly cannot alter
the thinking processes of those philosophers who have received most of
their training in native traditions and who continue to work in their native
land. But to deny an Asian impetus to Zeno’s philosophy altogether
would be untenable. Whilst he carried over from Aristotle an interest
in the physical world, it cannot be denied that Zeno introduced a new
moral tone and religious earnestness into his philosophy. Thus, the whole
system was transformed, and it is difficult to justify assertions that the
end product is a natural continuation of Aristotelean thought.

i lt must be recalled that during this period, the post-classical age, the
individual came to use tradition, instead of being used by ìt, Tedeed),
itis in this age that the Greek pride in human reason attains WS mosi

73

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

confident expression.”” Although this process began with Aristotle, i
was first sharply defined by Zeno. He and the early Stoics came from
Asia and “though they might inherit Greek physics and metaphysics
they were free from the prepossessions and prejudices of Greek political
thought.” A possible channel of contact the Stoics had with Indian
thought lay in the Cynic school. The Cynic philosophy of Hellenistic
times sought virtue and moral freedom in liberation from desire and
rejected worldly goods. It may very well have been influenced by
Buddhism, since Buddhism at this time was a vigorous proselytizing
religion, and Asoka had sent embassies, possibly including some
missionaries, to Ptolemy of Egypt, Antiochus of Syria, and others, just
before 250 s.c. “with healing herbs and yet more healing doctrines,
Stoics were certainly influenced by the Cynic doctrines, and it is
therefore quite likely that the Koinos nomos of the Stoics was influenced
by the Buddhist universal “law” of karma.

‘The Stoics were not concerned with the idea of community in a limited,
self-governing city-state but visualized a universal society, a brotherhood
of man. Thus, they introduced into Western thought an ethic of universal
brotherhood based on a direct altruistic relationship between man and
man, overlooking the differences of race or colour. In Stoic philosophy
the whole universe is conceived of as only one substance, one Physis in
various states, and that one substance is reason, which is, in turn, God.
Reason, God, nature, Zeus, fate, world-soul, and providence are all
simply different names for the same reality. Everything is a derivative of
God and therefore is God. God is reason, pure and whole, and man has
a fragment of divine reason in him. This fragment is the ruling principle
which determines his way of life. Absolute conformity and submission t0

the divine reason, which permeates the universe, is virtue, and virtue is
the only thing that matters.

own nature, and we can only realize ourselve
purpose of God, whose Service is perfect
God and with his fellow man.
flowed all the Stoic concepts: a
of human beings, and an all-peryadi
and instinct of man in harmony wi

th the logos, the spirit of universe, *
concept which strongly influenced

74

The law of the universe is also the law of our |
s truly by conforming to the
freedom. This links man with |
From this general philosophical principle |
world-state, the brotherhood and equality
ng natural law based on the reason

a Santee Ai

the Roman legal system.5! The pow! |

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

of this belief comes out clearly in the prayer of the Stoic Emperor of
Rome, Marcus Aurelius, to the divine universe:

Everything suits me that suits you well, O Universe: nothing in your good time is
too early or too late for me: everything is fruit for me which your seasons bring,
O Nature: from you all things, in you are all things, to you are all things. The
poet says “Dear city of Cecrops’: will you not say ‘Dear city of God’?

The founders of Roman or later Stoicism were possibly Panaitios and
his pupil, Posidonius of Apamea in Syria (ca. 135-51 B.C.).” The latter,
after travelling a good deal, settled at Rhodes where in 78 B.c. Cicero,
amongst others, studied under him and reproduced many of the ideas of
his teacher in his Latin philosophical treatises. Virgil also drew from his
ideas. Posidonius, a man of immense learning, was not an original thinker
but a brilliant exponent of a blend of Stoicism and Platonism and of the
religious doctrines of the East. He epitomized the Hellenistic culture and
his writings represented with unique completeness the general mind of
the Greek world at the dawn of the Christian era.** The main object of
his philosophy was “to make men at home in the Universe” which was
one great city of gods and men alike, with fiery ether above and the world
of men below, in which the human soul sought to rejoin its own element
by soaring upwards after death. In this system room could be found for
the deification of rulers which was shown to have been common in the
Hellenistic world. For if the dead moved upwards or went home to God,
it was natural to think of them as being deified. Following this, even the
great living might be regarded as sent by “Providence” or “the eternal
and immortal Nature of the Universe,” to be saviours of the community
of the human race.”

Tt was during the latter period of the Roman Republic that Stoicism
developed as a powerful force, and it has often been said that it gave a
soul to the young emerging Roman Empire. It was certainly the greatest
system of organized thought in the Roman world, and its influence on
Roman jurisprudence was considerable. It influenced, amongst others,
Seneca, the tutor of Nero; Epictetus; Marcus Aurelius; and Aratus of
Soli, who amply compensated for his somewhat mediocre poetry by
revealing the hand of Providence behind the movement of the stars."

75

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Stoic ideas, in fact, provided an almost perennial source of inspiration
to later thinkers, such as Erasmus, Montaigne, and Grotius. ;
The rival system to Stoicism was Epicureanism, so called after jx
founder Epicurus (341-270 B.c.), who was a native of Samos oi: the coast
of Asia Minor. He came to Athens and founded his school in 306 s.c,
The two schools were continually engaged in controversy, but although
they were essentially very different, there were many points of agreement
between them. Based on an entirely naturalistic interpretation of the
universe, Epicureanism taught that pleasure and the absence of pain Were
the principal aims of life. Pleasure came from virtue, reason, justice, and
knowledge of nature. It did not specifically deny the existence of gods but
it did not admit their control of human affairs. The Epicureans shared
Stoic monism but they did not find a moral pattern behind society and
rejected the idea of a natural law, excluding all divine interference in
the course of the world. The gods, if they existed, did not interfere with
human life. By keeping the gods out of worldly affairs, the Epicureans
hoped to secure the peace of mind to contemplate the true nature of
the gods. Their aim was to liberate mankind from superstition and the
fear of death by insisting upon pleasure as the prerequisite of a wise and
righteous existence. Epicurus discovered very early in life that men torture
themselves with unnecessary fears of evil stemming either from their
fellow men or God. Man had to rid himself of this fear, and depend on
his own resources to reach inner peace by
without fear or desire. Death was like slee
to be feared: “God is nothing to be afraid
about: good is easy to get: evil is easy to be
sensualists or godless scientists
of life was happiness,
ridden with passions,
could achieve serenity
who advocated a simil
influenced by Indian
attitude to life,”58 Ep
of reality, which foun

living in accordance with truth
, an unconscious state and not
of: death is nothing to wory
ar.” The Epicureans were not

; : ‘é
which could not be achieved as long as men wet

-7 They had much in common with the Taoist
ar withdrawal and contemplation and “they we
Philosophies, with their negative but benevolent
icureans are chiefly noted for their strong sense
d its expression in physics as materialism, and i"

terest on the present life with a special insistent?
On its corporeal side.

76

as they have often been described. The ai

: ; k
and a sensible moderation and self-control alone

q

a

CONTACT BY CONQUEST

Both Stoicism and Epicureanism appear to be a response to
Alexander’s dream of human brotherhood in which Macedonians and
Persians, Greeks and barbarians, were all alike. Both, in transcending
the city-state, conceived of a universal life process. Both discerned a
pattern behind life and institutions. Both regarded death as a release,
the Epicureans from everything and the Stoics from the corruption of
the body. Both emphasized individualism—the solitary, self-centered
individual. Both aimed not at the discovery of truth but at the satisfaction
of practical needs. Both stressed happiness as the aim of life and
preached detachment from passions and emotions, because unfulfilled
desire brought unhappiness; indeed, happiness was to be achieved in
Epicureanism by holding no opinion at all. Both schools made the same
arrogant claim that without philosophy there can be no goodness—a
claim which neither Aristotle nor Plato ever made.” But Stoics went
a good deal farther, striving not only for happiness, but aiming at an
ideal of selfless duty. In this burdensome life the noble deed was its own
reward. The Stoic philosophy was in this sense more constructive, and
more greatly influenced the Romans and later Christianity, and, through
its influence on men in positions of power, it contributed to the efficiency
of government.”

Emphasis upon selfless action, the conception of the world-soul
with man containing a spark of the divine fire, and the renunciation of
sensual pleasures are doctrines which have an upanishadic ring, although
their development from early Greek thought is also possible. The idea,
however that an individual can be self-sufficient and have no business
with the world, remarks John Bowie, “is profoundly alien to earlier Greek
thought, It is more akin to the political abnegation of the East; it destroys
the assumption, so attractive in the writings of Plato and Aristotle that
the moral interest of the State and the individual naturally coincide.”
Both Hinduism and Buddhism stress that complete detachment from
the world of fear and desire is the supreme goal of wisdom. In this
respect, “The Bhagavad Gita and the Buddhist scriptures present strange
harmonies of language with the Stoic teachings .... “*

‘The fact that during this period the Eleusian and Orphic mystic
cults reappeared and increased in popularity further supports the view
that Indian ideas were current in the Hellenistic age and were gaining

77

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

converts. The reappearance of mystery cults in its turn was influenced,
as were other schools of thought, by the changed nature of the Greek
world. ‘The establishment of Greek kingdoms further east encouraged
increasing numbers of Greeks to travel to Asian lands in the performance
of varied civil, military, and commercial services. Many of them stayed
for prolonged periods and often married into Asian families. It was,
therefore, only natural that together with other ideas and experiences,
Asian mystery gods and cults should have travelled back with the Greeks
to the West, and provided stimulus to those cults which, although
somewhat dormant at this time, had existed there for several centuries,

78

Chapter III

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

WHILST AN INTELLECTUAL transformation was taking place in the
Hellenistic world, India was emerging as a dynamic and powerful state
under the Mauryas. China, hitherto unrecognized, almost unknown,
and politically divided, was assuming the forceful and unified national
personality she was to maintain from the time of the Chin and Han
Dynasties onward. The Greek kingdoms were gradually declining but
long before Greek power collapsed in Asia by the middle of the first
century, a new dominant power, the Roman, had begun to emerge in
the West.

According to tradition Rome was founded in 753 B.c. and her early
history is mostly shrouded in legend. The real Roman rise to world
power appears to have begun in the middle of the third century B.c.
when Rome rapidly extended her authority over an enormous variety
of people outside Italy. Carthage, a powerful enemy, was defeated and
destroyed by the Romans in the three Punic wars (264-241, 218-201,
and 149-146 g.c.).

In about 212 s.c. the Romans began to interfere with the affairs of
the Hellenistic world. In 205 B-c. they made Egypt their protectorate,
finally annexing it to their empire in 30 s.c. after the defeat of Anthony
and Cleopatra by the forces of Octavian. Africa was Rome's fifth
Province, and it was through Africa and the countries ringing the
Mediterranean that Rome felt Indian influence. From about 200 Bc.
until a.n. 300, Indian religion and thought played a considerable part in

79

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

these Mediterranean countries. Whole Indian creeds and Philosophie,
certainly were not transplanted into Roman soil, but enough fragments
combinations, and variations of Indian beliefs reached the Roman world
to interact effectively on the prevalent local doctrines. Indian thought
reached Rome mainly through Iran, Babylonia, and Egypt; however,
whilst one can detect many remarkable resemblances between Indian
thought and the philosophies of the Graeco-Roman age, there is no
record of borrowing. But records can disappear, and their absence in itself
is not evidence against mutual influence. For example, Indian influence
on ancient Scutheast Asia is indisputable, even though it cannot be
stated with certainty how or when Indians arrived there. The state of the

Seleucids, although it continued to rule areas of Southwest Asia from

Syrian Antioch, had been eliminated from the peninsula of Asia Minor,
Macedonia was captured in 167 8.c. and finally annexed by Rome in 149
B.C. Greece followed two years later.

‘The annexation of Egypt brought the Roman frontiers of culture and
commerce closer to India. This proximity became even greater when Rome
gained her sixth and richest Possession on the farthest coast of the Aegean
Sea in 133 B.c. where the Attalid dynasty of Pergamum had broken
away from the Seleucids. The last king of Pergamum had bequeathed
to Rome his state, which comprised the most heavily populated part
of Asia Minor, full of famous and highly developed cities and rich in
agricultural resources, textiles, and other industry. This heritage brought

« i
Rome “a source of fabulous profit for its officials and financiers, and of

potent influences u

; j renee
Pon its culture, religion and racial composition,
From the beginn

ing the Roman Empire was divided into two distinct
parts—the Hellenized East and the Roman West. The former was a”
amalgam of Eastern and Greek cultures, in which Hellenic speech and
culture was sometimes a veneer and sometimes a genuine influence.
Beginning as Greek States, the kingdoms in Asia Minor and Egyp!
gradually absorbed local concepts and customs, and Eastern thoughts
and habits, Alexandria, founded by Alexander in about 332 B.c. a”

situated on the western edge of the Nile delta, was the capital of the
Ptolemies in Egypt,? and as the glory of Athens wilted away, Alexandr :
gradually became the cultural capital of the new scientific, literary, 4

philosophical studies, and the commercial emporium of the East 2”

80

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

West. It was second only to Rome in importance. Alexander could not
have foreseen that one day, because of its connection with India, Africa,
and Rome, his city would become so cosmopolitan, with a fine library
and museum, and attracting philosophers, artists, scientists, and others
from the Mediterranean and Indian areas. The greatness of Alexandria
began when the body of Alexander was enshrined there in a magnificent
mausoleum, the Sema, after Ptolemy had diverted the funeral cortege to
Egypt, whilst it was proceeding from Syria to Macedonia, on the pretext
that Alexander had expressed the wish to be buried in the oasis of the
god Ammon.

At the same time Ptolemy transferred his capital from Memphis
to Alexandria. New influences began to pour in and the city grew in
stature and importance. It became a busy harbour, a thriving centre of
international trade with its splendid commercial facilities, and above all
the repository of a cosmopolitan culture. It had the biggest lighthouse of
antiquity, 480 feet high, and a zoo for which rare animals were imported
from all over the known world.’ The museum, technically a temple of the
Muses, the goddesses of arts and sciences, became a centre of literature
and learning. Under the guidance of the first two Ptolemies it became
an academy of letters and science, whose members, at times numbering
about one hundred, received generous financial assistance. The library
attached to the museum was liberally endowed by the Ptolemies and
became the greatest library in the Hellenistic world with collections of
rare and original works. At the time it was burnt when Julius Caesar,
during his Egyptian campaign, set fire to the ships in the harbour, it is
said to have contained about a million volumes.

A fresh beginning was made and another library was built at the
Serapium a considerable distance from the harbour. This library also was
destroyed, presumably by the Emperor Theodosius of Constantinople,
a a devout Christian, did not approve of old Greek books
T ontained, according to him, pagan knowledge and philosophies.

: contribution of Alexandria to knowledge in the realms of literature,
eee art, and science, is enormous, and, if its library had not twice

S oyed, our debt, no doubt, would have been incalculably greater.
$ k capital of the Seleucids, was the next most important
ellenistic world, and it also played a formative part in the

81

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

culture of the Roman Empire fora long time. The Seleucids had founded
cities throughout their dominions to help in the expansion of Hellenism,
‘Their success appears to have been somewhat limited, however, for Greek
cities in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia were like Greek islands ina
sea of Asian population untouched by Hellenism. “Posidonius, himself,
Syrian Greek, held no high opinion as to the purity of Hellenism among
his compatriots. And this diluted Hellenism of the cities was not likely
to penetrate very deeply into the thousands of villages with their Semitic
population.”>

A modern form of Greek was spoken in the Hellenistic world,
including Alexandria, and Hellenistic culture was a combination
of cosmopolitan and older Greek cultures. Unity of currency, new
roads, improved harbours and lighthouses, and larger ships facilitated
intercourse and trade. The tremendous work done by the Achaemenian
rulers of Persia in opening up the lands of western Asia and linking them

by means of a network of roads, including the famous “Royal Road’ _

connecting Ephesus and Susa, and a postal system extending to Bactria
and India, was continued by the Hellenistic states, and still later by the
Romans after their annexation of the kingdom of Pergamum.‘

It was from this world that the Romans acquainted themselves with

the cultural and intellectual heritage of the past. Culture flourished in |

Egypt under the Ptolemies, and because of well-developed commerce
with the outside world, Egypt became increasingly prosperous. She
already had brisk trade relations with India. In fact, Indian contacts with
Egypt were anterior to the emergence of Greek power in Alexandria. The
tale of Egyptian explorations by land and sea from the earliest times to
reach the Land of Punt (India) isa fascinating and a romantic narrative.
But it was at the end of the fourth century B.C., when the Ptolemies came
to the throne of Egypt, that Indo-Egyptian commerce received a great
impetus, especially under Ptolemy II, who also paid great attention to the
African coast, where he founded colonies as far as the island of Socotra.
The importance of East Africa was considerable, for here the Hellenistte
armies obtained ivory, tortoise shell, slaves, and elephants.® The Greeks
had learned from India the use of elephants in war when Chandragup™
gave five hundred elephants to Seleucus.

Indian trade with Egypt, however, was by overland routes through

82

|
|
|

|
|
|
|
i

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

western Asia. If there had existed an earlier sea route, it was forgotten by
the time of the Ptolemies. But the anarchy reigning in Syria following
Alexander’s death, together with the rise of the hostile kingdom of
Parthia and its defeat of the Roman legions in 53 B.c. at Carrhae,
rendered the overland routes uncertain and increased the importance of
the hitherto unpopular sea route.? During this period the Romans and the
Ptolemies witnessed the development of a profitable commerce between
the two great civilized regions of the time, the Mediterranean countries
and India. Egypt, furthermore, unlike other parts of the Hellenistic
world, could be directly reached by sea from India, and this encouraged
maritime intercourse.

The perilous desert journey, however, between the Nile and the Red
Sea was something of a deterrent. Attempts were made from time to
time to build a canal between the waterways, but these invariably proved
unsuccessful. Darius the Great tried it, and so did Ptolemy Philadelphus
(285-246 s.c.), but both failed. Consequently, the latter revived the old
idea of a port on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, connected with the
Nile by a desert road furnished with convenient and comfortable resting
points. The road, roughly about two hundred fifty miles long, linking
Coptos on the bend of the river Nile, and the port Berenice on the Red
Sea coast, was punctuated by eight watering places and the journey took
eleven or twelve days under favourable conditions. In 274 B.c., Ptolemy
Philadelphus built the port of Myos Hormos, one hundred eighty miles
north of Berenice, thus cutting the desert journey by five days. Inevitably
Myos Hormos soon became the ideal port for eastern trade and eclipsed
all competitors. ??

Almost two centuries later Strabo the geographer, who lived in the
ae of Augustus, visited the port of Myos Hormos and found that it was
zac co centre for east Indian trade, and that about one hundred
A ae T sailed from that port to India, probably in a single season.

ae = d sailors even reached the mouth of the Ganges.”
= = oe led to Indian settlement in Egypt and Egyptian colonies
he na at contaci between India and Egypt had become closer
ae = ie period is confirmed by Athenaeus, who says that Indian
eee unting dogs, cows, and spices carried on camels figured in the

ns of Ptolemy. The saloon of Ptolemy Philopator’s (221 B.C.)

83

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

yacht was lined with Indian stone. Indian figures found at Memphis may

C grave
stone has been excavated bearing signs of the wheel and trident. The

infant deity Horus is represented in Indian postures seated on a lotus, In
papyrus fragments an account exists of some Greek mariners who were
shipwrecked on the Malabar coast and hospitably entertained by a local
king. Again, there has been discovered in the temple of Redesiya, on the
desert route to the Red Sea, “a dedication by an Indian to Pan, pointing to
a real and direct intercourse between the two people.” Hultzsch mentions
finding a solitary silver coin belonging to the period of Ptolemy Soter
in a Bangalore bazaar.

From this monopoly of the sea commerce between India and
Europe Ptolemaic Egypt gained the extraordinary wealth and power
for which she was famous. It was fortunate for Egypt that there was no
serious competition from other powers, especially Syria who could have
considerably intensified her own trade with India through the Persian
Gulf. Possibly the internal situation in Syria was too chaotic to encourage
international trade,

Astriking piece of evidence of the Egyptian-Indian trade is provided by
Rostovtzeff, who points out that the financal and economic organization
of Ptolemaic Egypt was very similar to that of Chandragupta Maurya and

his successors as set forth in Kautilya’s Arthasastra, For instance, the three
state monopolies,

a far-

indicate the existence of an Indian settlement, and a Ptolemai

oil, salt, and mines and their organization, as well as

P
reaching state socialism under the rule of “enlightened monarchs,
were common to both India an

The date ofthe Arthasastra,
compiled detail, and politic
probably will always remain
the early Mauryan period.
the dating of this work is
Of those scholars who pl

d Ptolemaic Egypt. ail
which is unique for its compression, care ,
al realism, is somewhat controversial—an

The volume of polemical writing surrounding
much too large to lend itself to brief review.
ace the date of this treatise much later, Keith,
whose writings include such divergent subjects as the history of Sanskrit
literature and the history of the British Empire, was the chief spoor
“That the work was a product of 300 (A.D.) written by an official attache
to some court; is at least plausible if it cannot be proved.” Keith’s ve
is surprisingly infirm and indeed appears to fluctuate. Elsewhere

84

. of
so— but most scholars accept it as a Wor k

TE
OE a

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

“assigned it to the first century B.C. while the matter very probably is
older by a good deal than that.” A number of scholars have disputed
this somewhat indecisive opinion and, whilst admitting to some later
interpolations in the work possibly to bring it up-to-date, have endorsed
the opinion originally advanced by Shamasastry that it is a Mauryan
document based upon the knowledge and experience of the pre-Mauryan
administrative practice and theory of state craft. Even if parts of the
Arthasastra reflect Mauryan or pre-Mauryan conditions, Indian influence
on Egyptian administration or vice versa may be significantly indicative
of a much closer exchange of ideas between India and ancient Egypt
than has hitherto been believed.

During the unsettled period when the strong rule of the early
Ptolemies was declining and the Romans were not yet firmly in command
of Egypt, the eastern trade suffered a brief set-back. Once Rome had
established its authority, however, it took positive measures to continue
and in fact to vigourously encourage, the Ptolemies’ policy of trading with
India directly through sea or land routes which, although still in use, lay
through hostile Parthia. In 25 s.c. Augustus, whose cold-blooded cruelty
during the Roman civil war aroused repulsion but did help to restore
order and prosperity in Rome, sent an expedition to secure command
of the sea route to India, having perceived it to be in the interests of
Rome to encourage the lucrative trade of Arabia and India. To secure
this trade the Romans attempted to make the highways safer, improve
the existing facilities, and acquire new areas for better routes. Military
expeditions were also organized to cope with piracy and raiders. The road
across the desert from Coptos to Myos Hormos was carefully marked
into stages, depots were made for storage, water reservoirs were built,
and armed guards provided protection for traders and travellers. A fleet
was stationed in the Red Sea at the time and there are some accounts
of merchants’ ships having been armed for defence against raids. Later
Hadrian (117-138) built an entirely new road to the Red Sea through
level country and furnished it with halting stations.

A few decades later, in 45, the epoch-making discovery of the
POON winds (attributed to Hippalus during the reign of Claudius)
drastically altered the whole aspect of sea-borne trade between India
and Rome. Strabo mentions that by a strange though eventually happy

85

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

mischance an Indian sailor mistook his course and reached Egypt half
dead. The Greeks in Egypt nourished him back to health and the Indian,
in gratitude, piloted Hippalus back to India along the monsoon routes,
Whilst knowledge of these winds was probably new to the Greeks,
the Indians and the Arabians had known and made use of them for
centuries, !”

‘The monsoon winds blow over the Indian Ocean from the northeast
in winter and from the southwest in summer. Once their currents were
known it became possible to sail far more speedily and directly from
Indian to Egyptian ports. Alexandria could now be reached within two
months or even less, as against the thirty months taken by Scylax, the
pioneer Greek sailor, to sail from India to Suez. A trader could now
leave Egypt in July and reach the Indian ports by the end of September.
‘There he could dispose of his merchandise and acquire a cargo of the
luxuries so much in demand in Rome and begin his return journey by
the end of November. Helped by the northeast monsoons he would sail
to Aden and then, via the Red Sea, reach Alexandria about February,
thus easily completing the entire trip well within a year. In fact the
journey from Rome to India could be completed in less than sixteen
weeks. It took about two weeks from Rome to Alexandria, about three
and a half weeks from Alexandria to Berenice, a month for descending
the Red Sea, and forty days from Ocelis (Cella), a port on the Red Sea
coast of Arabia, to the nearest Port in India."* Also, the ships could now
sail on the high seas away from the Pirate-infested coast. Furthermore,
the trade monopoly of the Arab towns was broken up and, although
they attempted to create difficulties, they were firmly suppressed. The
West was determined to trade with India without any intermediary:
The voyage could be undertaken either from the Egyptian or Nabataean
side, although the former was more usual. There were three Egypta”
ports: Arsince at the Gulf of Suez; halfway down the coast was Myos
Hormos; and finally the distant Berenice. Traffic in goods and people
now increased enormously, and whereas about twenty ships a year made

the journey before the discovery of the monsoon winds, a ship now left
Egypt for India almost every day.

Rome, enriched by the spoils and tributes from so many foreig”

lands, had acquired a taste for luxuries of every kind. The capital of the
86

Oe A

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

greatest empire ever established in Europe was filled with people who had
inherited great wealth and whose sole occupation was the enjoyment of
these riches. The returning generals found their villas dull, rustic, and old-
fashioned, made all the more unbearable because they had brought back
with them masses of coinage, bullion, and slaves. They had developed
expensive tastes whilst in other continents, and now they had the means
to indulge those tastes at home. They did so with feverish haste and
great display. Oysters were brought all the way from Spain or Brittany,
and wild beasts were imported from the farthest corners of Egypt to be
featured in games. Common men, always keen to emulate the fashion
determined by the elite, soon followed, and before long even the country
surrounding Rome was involved. One may gain some conception of the
vast wealth of the generals from the inheritance of the Emperor Augustus
who, despite his claims to divinity and pursuit of sexual debauchery, had
amassed nearly forty million pounds in twenty years. In modern values
this would be many times more. Senators owned property in every
province, had incomes of over a hundred thousand pounds per annum,
and kept thousands of slaves. Seneca himself owned several hundred
citronwood tables imported from Mauritania. The senators would spend
forty thousand pounds on a single carpet for their homes. Pliny relegated
to second rank those whose annual income was less than sixty thousand
pounds. Even men of infamous character were rich. As for the emperors
and their favourites, “they strove to astound the world by their fantastic
follies. Luxury in food, in attire and in furniture surpassed every example
of sumptuous idiocy which our own epoch can show.”!? Gaius (Caligula)
(37-41), whose chief obsessions were cruelty and sexuality, wore cloaks
adorned with emeralds and robes woven of pure silk—an extremely
expensive article in Rome at the time, especially purple silk. He drank
Precious stones dissolved in vinegar and served his guests with gilded
bread and meat. At Lucullus’ triumphal feast about three million litres of
wine were consumed. Roman banquets were remarkable by any standards
for the enormous quantities of food and drink consumed, but they were
on at times repulsive, affairs, totally lacking in the elegance of the
a e t b for example, considered an accomphlishment to be able
e wi inorder to resume eating- Roman sexual life was equally

ed, sadistic, and full of crude perversions. The youth of the

87

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

country, clad in garments laden with gold and pearls, poured out their
wealth at the feet of fashionable courtesans and would squander a fortune
in a matter of hours. Greek sexual life was also extravagant, but it was
remarkably immune from inelegance and perversions, if homosexuality i
not included in this category. Roman pursuit of pleasure was spectacular
but repulsive, lacking dignity, restraint, and an understanding of the very
nature of pleasure. Even the greatest of the Mughals or the Sungs would
have envied the extravagance, although not the crudity, of the Roman
Emperors. Whilst the rich led a life of unparalleled laxity, kept armies
of servants and slaves, and gave interminable feasts, millions of hungry

men were wandering through the streets of Rome and the surrounding
countryside.

Of all the goods in particular favour with the luxury-loving Romans, |

Indian products were the most popular. To meet the demand, new
and greater efforts were made to increase trade with India and this was
accomplished to a degree which would appear astonishing even today.
The Romans demanded Asian luxuries on an unprecedented scale.
Chinese silk, Indian pearls, jewels, fine muslin, drugs, spices, condiments,
incense, ghee, ivory, dyes, cosmetics, oils, and perfumes, all fetched
high prices.” It appears that toward the end of the first century the
greatly prized Chinese silk (Sericum or Seric silk) as well as furs were
being shipped from Indian Ports to the western countries, because the
land routes were blocked by Parthia and the sea route had gained such
popularity. Cinnamon was also one of the most important exports and
its price in Rome was high—about 1500 denarii per Roman pound for
the best quality cinnamon and fifty denarii for the cheapest cassia. One
of the most sought after Indian products was cotton muslin, which was
so fine that the Romans called it nebula. Pepper, which remained one o
the most highly prized luxuries ofthe Westuntil modern times, was vely
expensive—about fifteen denarii a pound—and
It was consumed in such lar
people, no import du

In return,

yet greatly in demand.”
8e quantities that, as a concession to the
ty was placed on it in Rome.

Western merchants carried tin and lead to India, minerals
which India herself did not possess, as well as wine, coral, and glass—*
widely exported Roman product, especially coloured glass—brightly
coloured girdles, and gold and silyer coins. Special presents were carne

88

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

for kings, including maidens for harems. However the principal means
of exchange with India was gold. Pliny bewailed the enormous drain on
Rome’s resources created by the demand for eastern luxuries. There was
not a year in which India did not take at least 550 million sesterces from
Rome,” an equal amount going to Arabia and China. The gold which
came from taxation and pillage in Spain and Dacia, stayed in Rome only
briefly before transit to Asia. Great quantities of Roman coins found in
South India where jewels and spices were sold bear Pliny out. He also
tells us that Indian wares cost a hundred times more in Roman markets
than in Indian markets.” Later, Vespasian’s policy in 69-79 of cutting
down extravagant expenditure may have made some difference in the
import of luxury goods from India but there is no concrete evidence
that it did. At the same time commerce in cotton and other industrial
goods continued steadily. This is supported by the fact that Roman
coins belonging to the period after the reign of Nero (54-68) are more
often found in those parts of India where cotton was grown. ‘There are
considerably fewer Roman coins of the third century to be found in India,
which may indicate a decline in commerce.

Trade between Europe and Asia was so brisk that, despite the hostility
of Parthia towards Rome and their periodic clashes, and despite the
increasing popularity of the Red Sea route, the Persian Gulf route
nevertheless carried a flourishing trade and land-borne trade also grew
considerably. This trade led to the rise of great cities along the routes, and
of new ports on the coasts. Petra, the town of Nabataeans, and Palmyra,
which commanded the caravan routes to Asia, served as terminal points
for the maritime trade of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Gerra,
Ommana, the Charax Spasini, were all large mercantile towns to which
Indian vessels regularly brought cargoes of timber, blackwood, and ebony,
whilst Arabia sent the frankincense and spices of Cana. In return for these
goods the region exported pearls, which, however, were not as valuable
asithe famous Indian ones. From Charax a route ran up to the Euphrates
Joining the well-known overland route near Seleucia.”*

Both Ptolemy in his Geography and the unknown author of the
m eriplus Maris Erythraei testify to the number of merchants engaged
e trade, and thus to its volume. Ptolemy draws his information

en who had been to India, many of whom had lived there for

89

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

a long time. The Periplus, which is a kind of practical handbook fi
merchants presumably written by an Egyptian Greek merc

hant from
Berenice, contains a detailed account of its author’s coastin

§ Voyage to
India. The Periplus amongst other things mentions the import of Greek

girls for Indian harems and various references are found to Indian
residents in Alexandria. The Jatakas are full of references to Buddhist
merchants and their adventures on voyages to distant countries
the overland caravans that took days and nights travelling east a
across deserts.

Trade inevitably led to some tourism and especially to Roman and
Indian settlements in their respective areas of influence. There wasa
Yavana colony at the mouth of the Kaveri River and foreign populations
were known to have existed in the Madura district. Mercenary Roman
soldiers attending Indian princes are mentioned in Tamil literature. The
Tamil area was one with which the Romans had considerable commercial
relations, for it had cloth, dyes, and pearls to offer. Hence, it is not
surprising that Tamil poems sing of Yavana ships bringing wine and
other wares to their ports.” A late map shows a temple of Augustus at
Musiris on the west coast of India (Cronganore in Kerala) which would
indicate that there must have been a large enough Roman settlement to
erect a temple honouring their deified Emperor. Sir Mortimer Wheeler,
however, boldly declares that the “Temple of Augustus” at Musiris

indicates an “official arm” long enough to reach the Malabar Coast.2* No
trace of this temple has ye

, and to
nd west

they brought, including parrots.28
Of the several branche

; ; in the
S of natural science that flourished in th
Hellenistic and Roman wo

90

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Geography, regarded as the most important geographic work of antiquity;
Arrian’s Indika; the Elder Pliny’s Natural History; and Ptolemy’s Guide
to Geography.” The unknown author of Periplus Maris Erythraei travelled
through India and left an eye-witness account of the Red Sea and of the
Arabian and Indian coasts.

Trade between India and Rome continued to thrive steadily during
the second and third centuries a.D. With the rise of the great Gupta
power the heart of the Indian Empire moved inland toward central
India, and a splendid cultural renaissance set in with a distinctive Indian
character. This, however, interrupted the maritime trade between Rome
and India. The emergence of the Sassanian Empire in 227 also checked
direct communication between the two nations. But contact continued
through Alexandria, to which Indians flocked in increasing numbers,
until the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the consequent
decline of Alexandria.

Indian trade with Rome had an extremely important influence on
Indian contacts with the countries of Southeast Asia. Rome’s appetite
for luxuries was so great that India could not satisfy it. Indian supplies of
precious stones, ivory, and spices had begun to run out. Consequently,
Indian traders began searching eastward for fresh sources of supply.
They imported goods from the countries of Southeast Asia and then
exported them to the Roman world. This Indian commercial contact with
Southeast Asia gradually bloomed into an exceptionally fruitful cultural
intercourse. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the Roman demand
ceased and the entrepôt trade of India collapsed.

Roman emperors took an increasing interest in Indian affairs and,
in marked contrast to their commonly arrogant attitude toward foreign
ambassadors, accorded dignified and courteous receptions to Indian
envoys. The political importance of the Indian states as allies against the
Parthians and later Sassanians was a major reason for Rome to cultivate
the Indian ‘kings, especially those who occupied the northwestern and
Indus Valley regions. Drawn more and more eastward by the problems of
internal political turbulence and expanding eastern frontiers, the Roman
€mperors succumbed with fascination to Asian institutions and religions.
2 oe India had had diplomatic relations Salle Syria, Egypt,

r countries, she had not dispatched a mission to Rome before

91

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the time of Augustus. An Indian embassy was sent to the Roma

C by the

ization of
the value of Indian trade and, possibily the value of a political alliance

against hostile powers in western Asia, which was responsible for an en
of Indo-Roman diplomatic contact that was to last for the next three
centuries. With Kushan power replacing that of the Indo-Creeks in
India, this diplomatic contact became much more regular. The vast
Kushan Empire, which included Afghanistan, Bactria and much of
Central Asia, comprised a variety of nationalities—Indo-Greeks,
Parthians, Scythians, Iranians, Chinese, and others. The role of the
Kushans in providing a meeting ground for the great civilizations of
the time, and in disseminating Buddhism to Central Asia and beyond,
has been extremely important.

It is true that contact between India and other civilizations was
anterior to the rise of the Kushans but at no time was it greater. The
cosmopolitan nature of the Kushan Empire is aptly illustrated by their
coins, many of which carry a Persian title for the king in Greek letters and
the effigy of the king in Turkish dress. The Kushan kings were in close
contact with Roman authority in western Asia. The political ambition of
the Romans to expand into India also brought them nearer to the Kushan |
frontiers, The Kushans, it is suggested, also imported a large number of
Greek sculptors from Asia Minor, who settled in the Punjab and were
associated with the Gandhara school of art.

Roman historians, discussing Indian missions in Rome, make specific
references to the Indian embassies that visited Trajan (98-117), Hadrian
(117-138), Antoninus Pius (138-161), Marcus Aurelius (161-180),
Heliogabalus (218-222), Aurelian (270-275), Constantine (323-353)
and Julian (361-363). Two Indian embassies were probably sent ©
Justinian (527-565). The ancient Romans, who had dealt with a variety
of foreign emissaries from both within and without their vast empit®
had usually disregarded all diplomatic etiquette and theory. In contrast,
India, who never acquired territorial possessions outside her own national

frontiers, had a highly developed and clearly prescribed theory of the"
of diplomacy. Th

e Persians were also noted for their cultured diplomatic
behaviour. The Roman rulers did not provide for a distinct foreign affairs

Emperor, when he was on the island of Samos in 21-20 B.
Indo-Parthian ‘King Azes II.” It was mainly Augustus’ real

92

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

department, and they appear to have cared even less for diplomatic
negotiations. It was mainly the Greeks who acted as intermediaries
between the foreign powers and the Roman emperors. Gibbon has
described graphically the treatment Aurelian accorded the ambassadors
of the Alemanni, who were required to prostrate themselves on the
ground in front of the king, before they were commanded to rise and
permitted to speak. Aurelian treated them with contempt, reproached
them, and finally dismissed them.5 “A crude haughtiness,” says Saletore,
“marked the dealings of the Romans with the foreign monarch which had
something of the Macedonian insolence in it. Their entire diplomacy was
directed towards one end—the display of their military might.”

Indeed despite their many brilliant achievements in political and
military organization, jurisprudence, communications, and architecture,
the Romans were on the whole a very unimaginative people. In marked
contrast to the small city of Athens, they contributed very little which was
original to human heritage during the long centuries of their domination.
Culturally, they were a destitute relative of the Hellenes. Even their
accomplishments were drawn, at least partially, from the experience of
Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians. The Persian system of satrapies presents
many parallels to the Roman provincial system, and Darius possessed
many of the qualities for which Augustus is so admired. The Roman
system of internal communications, including the network of roads and
the postal system, is reminiscent of Iran. In fact, only in recent years has
the Roman debt to Persia been fully realized.

The Romans added little to what had been devised by Greek
philosophers in about 300 s.c., although some of them expressed Greek
thought better than the Greeks had done. For example, Lucretius
stated the doctrines of Epicurus with a much greater intensity.” The
enly Greek school of thought which found firm roots in Rome was
Stoicism. Although the Romans borrowed much from the Greeks, felt
a Passionate admiration for Greek culture, and suffered from a sense of
o the Greeks, they disliked the contemporary Greeks and
a tae them as unscrupulous. At times, even Greek philosophy

n popularity.
ole the Romans were technical innovators and although
rited much from the Etruscans and the East, it was they who

93

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

invented concrete and devised the dome.* Their sculpture, also ay
important contribution, was very significant in Byzantine art Where
Eastern influences were also active.

‘The ordinary Roman was generally ignorant of the history of mankind
and of foreign peoples, and he had no knowledge of economic laws orof
social possibilities. In some ways, the Romans were even primordial, In
the third century B.c., whilst Asoka had renounced war and was preaching
non-violence and compassion for all other beings, the Romans wer
indulging in human sacrifice, and “much that we learn of the religion
of republican Rome carries us far back beyond the days of decent gods,
to the age of Shamanism and magic.” Their slavery practices were
infamous for their savagery. The gladiatorial combats, which the Romans
introduced in 264 8.c., are illustrative of a morbid mentality and the
extremes of cruelty—even by Roman standards. It was not until the fint
century A.D. that Seneca expressed the protest of the human conscience
against such barbarism.

Gilbert Murray, whilst pointing out that of the three most important
strains—Greek, Hebrew, and Roman—in the Western inheritance, the
Roman influence is by far the most striking and visible, further comments
that behind almost everything Roman the real moving spirit is Greek,

including the Latin alphabet, Roman law and political ideas, scientific |

. . è
knowledge, architecture, and literature.“ The Romans, however, wet
able rulers;

ruthlessly practical men, Th
and imitate whatever the

wh
Gr

culture would alone render our debt to th
gave a practical, revitalizing
But in spite of their su
organization, the Romans
empire. The influx of the
some historians have ch:
the first three centuries a
Occident.

em great. In addition, Romê,
turn to philosophical thought. A
periority in armed strength and pela
were often haunted by the fear of an Easte

> 5 ring
aracterized the history of the Empire au
s “a ‘peaceful infiltration’ of the Orient hee
”“ An important factor which contributed to the mou?

94

they had courage and a sense of justice, but were ahr
ey were a receptive people, willing to cop)
y regarded worthwhile, and were tolerant of at |
ideas and institutions of others. They drew upon Greek and Asian an |
ose moral excellence they admitted. The Roman role in sp wa |
eek philosophy and in helping it to survive the gradual decay of Greet

that
Eastern peoples into Rome was so great

ee

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

influx of Asians and Africans into Rome was the Roman lack of racial or
colour prejudices. It is said that Romans were more friendly with Afro-
Asians than with the Jewish people. Then too, a great many of Nero's
senators and knights were of slave or foreign descent.”

In such an atmosphere of flowing diplomatic and commercial contacts
it was natural that Indian thought should have reached the Romans.
The existence of such contact is supported by the recent discovery of
a third century work attributed to St. Hippolytus,“ and entitled Kata
Pason Aireseon Elenchos (Refutation of all Heresies) also known as
Philosophoumena, which contains a brief exposition of the Brahmanas
of Tagabena (Tungabhadra) in South India. A detailed study of the
text made by Jean Filliozat has shown that Hippolytus, in championing
the cause of Christian orthodoxy, was attacking the doctrine of the
Upanishads. That such an attack on the Indian scriptures was made
would suggest that Roman intellectuals had become greatly interested
in the doctrines which came from India during the third century.“ No
wonder Plotinus, who wrote approximately a decade after the Elenchos,
developed such a keen desire to know more of Indian thought that he
joined the military expedition of Gordian in order to travel in the East.
It was perhaps the rise of Christianity that put an end to the influx of
Indian doctrines into Rome.

Indian commerce and culture possibly travelled even farther west
than Rome to Scandinavia. This possibility is suggested by the second
century inscriptions found at Junnar in western India which refer to the
benefactions of two Yavanas, Irila and Cita, who have been interpreted
a the amber merchants of Scandinavia. Kushan coins have been
discovered in Gaul and Scandinavia, further suggesting commercial
relations between India and Scandinavia. The excavations carried out
i the mid-nineteen fifties on a small island called Lillion, or Helgo, in
Ae een about twenty miles west of Stockholm, uncovered many
= ee i including an exquisite bronze statue of the Buddha seated
ah ee = with crossed legs. According to Wilhelm Holmqvist,
PEA y the arehacological investigation, the Buddha is of Indian
eee sian origin. This is an amazing discovery which may lead
isie oze surprising knowledge about the cultural contacts between

nt India and the West.“

95

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

It was at this time, when the commercial, diplomatic, and intellectual
contact between India and the West was at its height, that Buddhism
began to spread in the regions of Central and Western Asia.

The missionary zeal of the Buddhist Sangha was responsible for
the expansion of Buddhism abroad. Buddhism was the world’s first
proselytizing religion. It is said that after attaining enlightenment the
Buddha was at first reluctant to preach his doctrine, because he feared
that people would be unable to understand it, but later he decided to
spread his teaching for the benefit of those who could grasp something
ofits meaning. Consequently, he organized the Buddhist Sangha, which
was to consist of men, who, having learned the doctrine themselves,
would wander from place to place preaching the doctrine to laymen and
disputating it with followers of other faiths. The Sangha was to be run
on democratic lines in which the individual monks were subordinated
to the collective authority of the monastery. An important instruction to
the dhikshus or monks was: “Let no two of you go in the same direction,’
the implication of which was that a new area of activity should be
selected by each individual monk. Not only were the members of the
Sangha thus compelled to look for distinct spheres for themselves, but
in due course they also acquired the will to do so. Whilst the Sangha
initiated the Process and encouraged monks to go out and preach, it
did not direct, superintend, control, or co-ordinate their activities thus
allowing unfettered scope for individual initiative to adjust itself to a new
environment. This, perhaps, may explain the successful, enthusiastic, and
many-sided missionary activities of the individual Buddhist monks.

The Sangha has a two-sided meaning in Buddhism. It is a fraternity
of the entire body of monks, and at the same time a bond of association
ee mone In the former sense the word refers to a “body ot
PEN Sn and in the latter to the “confederation which makes them onë
body. Both concepts of the Sangha, concrete and abstract, appeat in
usage. Th its abstract aspect Sangha is a spiritual unity, and in its concret?
aspect it is an institution of Buddhism. In the beginning the abstract

3 PS more Important, and each individual monk was a Sangh?
in spiritual communion with other monks. Later as Buddhism spread
the concrete aspect became uppermost from the historian’s viewpoint
The unitary Sangha became plural and the wandering monks cam®

96

a Vy

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

together in monk communities. Each Soman came to be called a
Sangha, and Sangha continued to multiply, finally assuming the form
of monastic establishments, functioning as centres of learning and
culture, and thus playing a remarkable and dynamic role in the history
of Buddhism. Buddhist monasticism was a source of authority and
intellectual advancement, and a stabilizing influence in society. Wherever
Buddhism spread, monks came, settled, and built monasteries. Buddhist
monk communities and monasteries, unlike their counterparts in the
Christian world, were never isolated from society.*° The monk-and-
laymen intercourse remained an essential feature of Buddhist monastic
life, enabling the monks to influence the life and culture of the people,
and in return be influenced by them.

However, it was not until the reign of Asoka, the first great royal patron
of Buddhism, that missionary efforts to preach the gospel of the Buddha
abroad were set into motion. Before Asoka dispatched his emissaries
abroad, however, he insisted that his own people, as is indicated by his
pillar edicts, practice the observance of truth, restraint, kindness, charity,
Purity, respect for elders and teachers; and to control evil thoughts, such
as anger, ferocity, conceit, envy, and misguided selfwill. He advocated
complete religious tolerance and respect for all pious men, irrespective
of their denomination, including even the materialists, and called upon
all religious denominations to refrain from self-praise and denunciation
`: Others. Deeply influenced by the Buddhist ideas of compassion and
pee for all living beings, he sought to bring all people
N oS 5 in wiae, To help his people understand and follow
a é Tees religious officers in Hoe regions and had his
contacting z rocks and stone pillars. He himself undertook tours,
ae ree 2 and ascetics to enrich his knowledge, and performed

e ee piety.” ; . z ;
heldat eai s soka s time that the third Buddhist Sangili Council was
the true ae ae x HE ie discuss religious affairs and to determine
this ouncil a e Buddhist faith, dhamma" A major consequence of
to various n ae been the decision to send religious missions
Sources reveal th ve ndia and to other countries. Buddhist literary
(lonian Ce at such missions were sent to the country of the Yavanas

); to Gandhara, Kashmir, and the Himalayan regions in

I7

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the north; to the western part of India, Aparantaka; the southern parts,
Vanavasi and Mysore and farther south to countries as far as Ceylon and
the Malay Archipelago. The celebrated thirteenth rock edict of Asoka
(probably belonging to 256 B.c.) refers to his religious missions to such
far off kingdoms as those of Antiochus (Antiyoka) Il, King of Syria; of
Ptolemy (Turamaya) of Egypt; Antigonos (Antakini) of Macedonia;
Alexander (Alikasundara) of Epirus, an ancient district of northern
Greece; and Magas of Cyrenia, in North Africa. Asoka compares his
missionary triumphs to the military conquests of other monarchs,
Whether or not Asoka’s endeavours to spread the dhamma, both at
home and abroad, were of the dimensions suggested by the evidence of
Buddhist texts there is no doubt that his efforts were mainly responsible
for the popularization of the teachings of the Buddha both in and out
of India. Once the process was initiated, however, the inherent quality
of the creed, backed by the zeal of its monks, began to gain converts and
adherents with increasing speed.

By the time Buddhism began travelling abroad, it was already centuries
old and had become a well-organized, articulate doctrine, with a powerful
and widespread base in India, well poised to infiltrate into other lands.
During Asoka’s period the bulk of the Theravada Buddhist Canonical
works was in existence. The Pali Canon was settled during his reign and
committed to writing later in 88-76 B.c. Being a proselytizing religion
by nature, in the second century B.c. Buddhist ascetics (Samanas) were
found in western Persia and in Bactria in the first century. B.C. Later,
nascent Christianity met full-grown Buddhism in the academies and
markets of Asia and Egypt.” Followin g Asoka’s missions, Indian sects
gamed a firm foothold in Egypt during the Ptolemaic period. Traces of
an Indian settlement at Memphis have been found in the form of Indian
figures and a Ptolemaic Stave stone bearing the signs of the wheel and

trident. References to a flourishing Buddhist convent, with a Greek

chief, Mahadhammarakkhita, who went to Ceylon with other monks
to attend a religious ceremony in the second century B.C., are found M
the Buddhist Mahavamsa, as well as other works.° Photius refers to the
presence of Brahmana in Alexandria.

Buddhism was founded in the sixth century B.c. by Siddhartha

Gautama who, having renounced the life of royal luxury and worldly

98

“moro y

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

pleasures, set forth on a spiritual quest for a remedy for man’s ills. Four
-periences were t
an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a wandering Sadhu. The
frst three represented the misery of existence, and the fourth suggested
a possible way out. Through a long period of spiritual ordeals and
experimentation, physical suffering, ascetic practices, and meditation, he
finally gained the supreme Enlightenment, becoming the Buddha. He did
not claim revelation or divinity; indeed, he preached a religion of intense
self-effort in which there was no need for God or the supernatural. His
teaching was empirical, scientific, and therapeutic, and one which was
free from tradition and clerical authority. Developing over a period of
twenty-five centuries and gaining a vast following in numerous countries,
Buddhism today is a highly sophisticated and complex religion, but its
whole doctrine revolves around Ariyasaccani, the four Ariyan truths: that
there is dukkha, suffering; that it has a samudaya, cause; that there can
be nirodha, suppression of it; and there is a magga, path, known as the
Middle Way in principle and the Noble Eightfold Path in practice, to
accomplish this. Thus nirvana or nibbana can be achieved.*!
In its early phase Buddhism in India was not very different from
S o N but during the period of Mauryan ascendancy
} a distinct religion. In the following Sunga-Kanva period,
ae the loss of royal patronage, Buddhism retained its hold on the
ae A number of famous Buddhist establishments like the
ee, ane the Karle caves, and the Sanchi stupa belonging to this
developed es great prosperity enjoyed by Buddhism. It had
fone ee ae ae ace into a popular one, a had become
Ta te oe : is ce as objects = wors ip Rees
Y Some of the C x arly phase that Buddbism egan to be x L
ndia; others = populace settled in the northwestern gO" o
irak Kin Ate own by the Besnagar Column, became Hindus. The
In the Bite nda (Menander) was a great champion of Buddhism.
Bures as at pC ithe (“Questions of Milinda”), Menander
linda, o ee the characters and is described as Yonakanam raja
adopte d Bie of the Yonakas.* Subsequently many Greeks in India
sm and generously donated to Buddhist establishments.

If Buddhi
sm had not established itself in this region as firmly as it did,

he immediate causes of his “Great Renunciation”: the

99

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

its further expansion into Western and Central Asia would have been
very difficult, if not impossible.

After the period of Asoka, the reign of Kaniska (first century AD)
marks the next prominent landmark in the annals of Buddhism. Tradition
represents Kaniska as a great patron of Buddhism, and associates him
with Buddhist scholars who shaped it in later times. Kaniska’s reign
marked a turning point, not only in the history of Buddhism, but also in
Buddhist art and literature. It witnessed the rise of Mahayana Buddhism,
which later developed into one of the chief schools of Buddhist doctrine,
and the magnificent literary activity begun by Parsva, Asvaghosa,
Vasumitra, and others. Pali was replaced by Sanskrit. The celebrated
Gandhara school of art reached its peak and sculptures of the Buddha
and Bodhisattvas began to appear. It was also largely through Kaniska’s
efforts that Buddhism was carried into Central and eastern Asia. There
was ceaseless missionary activity throughout his empire which reached
from central India to Central Asia. His reign may be characterized as
the starting point of Asian culture.

Once Buddhism had reached Central Asia there would seem to have
been every reason to aim primarily at those areas west of Asia with
whom India had been in commercial and cultural contact for centuries.
However, traces of Buddhist impact that far west are very few and
inconclusive, Possibly this is because the West had been an almost endless
scene of wars or it may be that Buddhism was too formidably opposed
by various other organized religions, particularly Zoroastrianism, Islam,
and Christianity.

References to the Asian countries west of India are found in Buddhist
literature, for instance in the Baveru Jataka (No. 339) and possibly "
Sussondi Jataka (No, 360). Indeed, it would appear that Asoka had
focused his attention more on the West than on the East, After all, Indian
ted from the Achaemen!
hism really developed an
e Kushans, it is not unlikely

ng efforts, mentions the oe.
onk Maharakkhita preached t

100

=e” ¥

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Kalakarama Suttanta to large audiences and is said to have converted one
hundred seventy thousand Greeks, ten thousand of whom entered the
Sangha. Further accounts of Buddhist activity among the Yavanas are
inevitably garbled but there is some historical support for the prevalence
of Buddhism there. Whilst the figures quoted are evidently a gross
exaggeration, the suggestion that the country of the Yavanas should be
identified with some district in the Kabul valley and not further westward
is contradicted by the thirteenth Rock Edict of Asoka, which refers to
the distant realms of the Yavana kings. The Pali texts even represent
the Greeks as taking part in missionary work. For example, the third
Buddhist Council held at Pataliputra not only decided to send Buddhist
missionaries to the distant Yona countries, but also called upon a Greek
bhikshu, Yona Dhammarakkhita, to go to the Aparantaka country, the
western region of India, and preach the dhamma there.” This would
suggest that the teachings of the Buddha had begun to appeal to Greeks
even before the time of Menander, and that they had begun to produce
monks of such ability and accomplishment that they could preach Indian
doctrines to Indians.

Writing centuries later, the famous Arab scholar Al Biruni also
acknowledged the existence of Buddhism in western Asia, although his
Sequence of historical narrative is obviously confused and disorderly.
According to him, Khurasan, Persia, Iraq, Mosul, and the country
Stretching up to Syria, had at one time been Buddhist. Later, Buddhism
Ae by the doctrine of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), who went from
onl a preached Magism in Balkh. King Gushtasp and his
Re iA TE this religion and spread the new faith by both
iE 5 aR They founded fire-temples throughout their empire,
ms eae of China to the Greek Empire. The succeeding kings
the chive. tianism the state religion of Persia and Iraq; as a result,
of Balkh. = were banished and forced to SHE to the countries cesi
Prevalence in is came Islam. Whilst Al Biruni s pesou of Buddhism s
it would be E Asia before Zoroastrianism is obviously inaccurate,
fora chronicle ate © disregard the whole statement. It is possible
Centuries is ka a historian to confuse dates of events which occurred

» Dut it is extremely unlikely that he would confuse facts.

at Bud 3
dhism was practiced in this area during the ancient period and

101

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

ser

first suppressed by Zoroastrianism, and later by Islam, must be accepted |

as substantially true, particularly when viewed in the light of other simi,
literary references. The hostility between Buddhism and Zoroastrianism
is hinted at in the Bhuridatta Jataka (No. 543), and Zoroastrian texts
mention disputes with Buddhists.**

Hsiian-tsang, the Chinese scholar, wrote in the seventh century that
Lang-kie (ka) Lo, a country having a separate government for each of its
valleys under the sovereignty of Persia, contained more than a hundred
monasteries with over six thousand Buddhist monks, and that there
were several hundred Hindu temples, many of which belonged to the
Sáiva Pasupata sect. In the capital, Su-tu-le-ssu-fa-lo, there was a large
and very handsome Mahesvara statue, highly revered by the Pasupatas.
As in India, both Hinduism and Buddhism, orthodoxy and heterodoxy,
were accepted beliefs.5° Hsiian-tsang, who possibly did not visit Persia
(Po-la-sse) personally, says it contained many Deva-temples and that
there were two or three Sangharamas, with several hundred priests who
principally studied the Hinayana teaching according to the Sarvastivadin
school. The patra of the Buddha was in the palace of the Persian King.
‘The fact that it was the Hinayana school which was prevalent in Persia
would suggest that Buddhism had been established there very early.

Archaeological evidence also supports the presence of Buddhism in
western Asia. Aurel Stein discovered a Bud
oe = Helmund River in the Sistan region on the Afghan-Persian

oie Turkistan at a place called Dandan-Vilig, a picture of a four-
armed Bodhisattva in the guise of a Persian with black beard and whiskers
and holding a vajra (thunderbolt) in his left hand has been found. This
suggests not only the existence of Buddhism in Persia but also that it had
T in its new environment, a phenomenon
comes after a long period of localization.
under of Manichaeanism, who preached his doctrine
century, speaks of the Buddha as a messenger of Godin

dhist monastery in the area

which generally
Mani, the fo

ar

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Suitas and the Patimokkha, and, according to Cyril of Jerusalem, the
Manichaean scriptures were written by one Scythianus and revised by
his disciple Terebinthus who changed his name to Buddas.**

Although there are no remains of old Parthian translations of
Buddhist texts, it is known from Chinese accounts that a number of
Persian Buddhist scholars, after studying at the Buddhist centres of
Tokharestan, went to China in the second and third centuries and
collaborated in the translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese. The
names of Parthian Buddhist monks in Chinese are distinguished by
the prefix An (Ngan) from the old Chinese name of Parthia An-she
(Arsak). Indeed, it was a Parthian prince, known to Chinese history as
Ngan-she-kao or Lokottama, who made the first organized effort to
translate the Buddhist canon into Chinese. He lived it the monastery
of Pa-ma-ssee (the White Horse Monastery) during the second century
and founded a school of translators known because of its excellence as
“unrivalled” in the systematic interpretation of Buddhism. He himself
translated more than a hundred Buddhist texts into Chinese, of which
fifty-five are available. It was at this school that the first Chinese monk,
Yen-Fo-t’iao or Buddhadeva, learned Sanskrit.

The reasons for the decline of Buddhism in western Asia, in marked
contrast to its brilliant successes in other areas of Asia, are somewhat
obscure. But some explanation may lie first in the inhospitable attitude
of the powerful Sassanin Empire (226-651) with its intense Iranian
tees towards religious and cultural proselytization, and later in
eee spread of Islam, which not only cut off the West from

a eae influences, but actually dislodged it from Central Asia.
nein, ae although not a proselytizing religion, had also reached

ne fe A Hindu settlement was established in Armenia in the

Sate an in the second century B.c. under the patronage of King
temples Bea e Arsacidae dynasty. These Hindus built fine cities and

t a a ee were destroyed early in the fourth century by
e 4 n lluminator.5? :

Ce us intellectual and religious movements that developed in

Were Chit, oman world during this period, the three most important
itectly ee see Gnosticism, and Neoplatonism. All three were, either
ectly, influenced by Indian concepts.

103

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS of Christianity are inexactly known and
the traditional story reverentially accepted by the faithful is a subject
of dispute amongst historians. The problems textual literary, and
historical—presented by the New Testament are being consciously
scrutinized in a scientific manner by scholars, many of whom are devout
Christians. Albert Schweitzer, who is regarded almost as a modern
Christian saint, declined to accept the historicity of the traditional view of
Jesus. In a similar vein Mahatma Gandhi said in an address on Christmas
Day, 1931: “I must say that I have never been interested in an historical
Jesus. I should not care if it was proved by someone that the man called
Jesus never lived, and that what was narrated in the Gospels was a figment
of the writer’s imagination. For the Sermon on the Mount would still be
true for me.” It seems natural enough to assume that the teachings of
Jesus, as in any religious belief, would be the core of the Christian faith
rather than the evidence of his historical existence.°? Yet, it has frequently
been asserted by Christian theologians, such as Reinhold Niebuhr, that
Christianity is the only fully historical religion and it stands or falls on
the truth of certain events which took place nearly two thousand years
ago. On the other hand, a body of Christian thinkers is developing
which does not believe that the abandonment of Christianity’s claim to
historicity would injure the ends of the faith.

Irrespective of the historical character of Jesus and of an intimate
connection between the activity of God and the course of human history;
Christianity is basically an historical religion in the sense that it was not
sudden ‘or miraculous transformation but an amalgam of slow, tedious,
and laborious growth to which both the accidents of history and the
deliberate decisions of eminent theologians have contributed their full
measure.

Although the exact time and year of his birth are uncertain, it W3
during the reign of Augustus Caesar that Jesus of Nazareth was bo a
probably in 4 8.c., in Judaea, and it was in 29 that he was crucified whilst
Tiberius was the Roman emperor. Reverent disciples trace his ancestty

to the royal dynasty of David and his birth is ascribed to immaculate

conception, an act of God, and they, as distinct from historia®™®

believe him to be an incarnation of God, whom the Jews were the firs!
to recognize.

104

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Little is known of his childhood—beyond the dramatic stories of
his birth—and little of his manner of life before he began to preach
his divine message at about the age of thirty. Very shortly afterward,
between eighteen months and three years, he was accused by his

possibly
of trying to set up an independent kingdom of Judaea and

countrymen
found guilty. Consequently, he was crucified along with two thieves

by the Roman authorities. Having died as Messiah and Redeemer, Jesus
Christ, it is believed by his followers, arose from the dead and founded
the Christian Church which gradually spread throughout the world
beginning with the work of the apostles. The believer admits that Jesus
was a Jew who inherited Judaic tradition, but he disregards the continuity
between Christianity and earlier doctrines, and the fact that Jesus lived
in Galilee, the northern part of Palestine, which was closely connected
with Syria by highways, and where there was a far greater mixture of
races and ideas than in Jerusalem. Ignoring these things, he assumes the
originality of the Christian faith. Jesus knew classical Hebrew and some
Greek, but his mother tongue was Aramaic, which was spoken all over
the Syrian world. He was a popular teacher attracting audiences from
various sections of the populace.

The traditional account of Christian origins concentrates almost
exclusively on the incidents connected with the rise of Christianity, giving
the impression that nothing else was happening at that time in the area.
Actually the situation was vastly different. It was a period of intense
Political activity and diverse religious practices, and it would hardly be
an overstatement to suggest that in every city and village in the Roman
: cette were activities, customs and rituals that eventually played
e oe of Christianity. Everywhere here were signs of
the official se oaa The vacuum created by the decline of authority of

ee eee of the city-states was filled by the cults of salvation.
i having an eee and the legions of demons were regarded
disbelief a both earth and sky. A wide variety of beliefs and
areas intermig ae of the Hellenistic world and its neighbouring
© world of R e > produce a miscegenous brook of faiths and fears.
Were great te st century was indeed one of transition and there
Major contributi, at work which paved the way for Christianity. A
ing factor to this spiritual restlessness may well have

105

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

been the very nature of Roman society, which, like the Greek wa,
based on slavery and by modern standards was callous and sensual. The
unfortunate were despised and the fortunate were insecure. Despotism
and tyranny were the order of the day as well as indiscriminate displays
of pride without honour. Life revolved around violent sports in which
men and beasts were tormented and killed, giving morbid pleasure to
spectators. The uneasiness of men’s hearts expressed itself in profound
religious unrest.°!

Some kind of religion has always existed in human society, although,
until the rise of universalized religions, it was extremely local and
personal. Early religions may appear crude or illogical to the modern
mind but their adherents were next to none in the intensity of their
conviction and faith in their deities. Yet they were most tolerant of each
other’s gods and beliefs. Religious intolerance appears to be one of the
consequences of the quest for a universal religion, and a phenomenon
previously almost unknown. The later introduction of organization into
religious orders increased the scope and depth of religious strife and
persecution. In antiquity, once the armed conflict was resolved, both the
conqueror and the conquered consciously or unconsciously allowed the
fusion of their gods, a process called theocrasia. A good example of such
a fusion can be seen in the assimilation of Aryan and Dravidian gods
in India, The process of assimilation, grouping, or rationalization of the
new and old gods, however, varied with local conditions. The history 0!
early theology is full of compromises and mutual adaptations.

When Roman rule extended to include the Hellenistic world, the
existing local cults could not serve the needs of an expanding stat?
comprised of distinct and distant nations. Greek philosophy itself was
in a transitional stage, seeking new expression to fit the new world
through Scepticism, Stoicism, and other schools. Along with this a te
of mysticism was developing, encouraging people to seek satisfaction
through personal mystical experience. A common and new religion was
needed, and the Romans, although generally disinterested in religious
speculations, had to attend to it. They experimented with Dea Roma, the
Goddess of Rome, as the supreme deity presiding over all the other loc? j

deities, but it did not succeed, possibly because of its obvious artificiality:
An exceedingly practical and hardy people, the Romans were singulari

106

[a

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

ill-equipped to work out a synthesis of philosophy and religion, or a
common form of worship, or to produce doctrines dealing with unseen
reality. They sought the satisfaction of their most personal religious
emotions in exotic cults, for state religion rather inspired patriotism than
stimulated spiritual life. Their hard-headed political attitude subordinated
the religious urge. The glamorous potency of Jupiter, the sky god, of
Juno and Minerva in their capitoline temple, and of the household gods
(penates), Vesta the hearth-goddess, Janus the guardian deity of gates,
and many others, as well as the careful measures taken to maintain their
rites and sacred buildings with great pomp and show, and their insistence
on superstition, must have held them in awe of their gods. It was left to
history to answer the needs of the time.

‘The syncretic nature of Christianity is well known, although its
historical evolution has been a complex phenomenon in which theological
disputes and religious strife have frequently been interlinked with political
conflicts. Founded in Judaism, which in its turn was a development of
Hebrew religion, it soon came into close contact with a variety of Greek
and Eastern religions and philosophies prevalent in the Hellenistic world
and with Roman paganism which in itself was equally complex: “Not
only did it preserve the heritage of Greek culture; it was also enlivened
and enriched by the influx of religions from the Near East.”
Christianity has been described as a Graeco-Roman phenomenon
in a Jewish mask. Enslin expresses the same opinion somewhat more
ae stating that the claim for Christianity as the “faith once and

oe e ivered to the saints” is, to an historian, utterly untenable. For
a n the child of Judaism, which, within a score of years,
which i ae le cult, adopted new concepts, and borrowed from all with
the C an contact, It was a product of its times, combining
tend oa aic heritage of exclusiveness with the newly emerging
distant — ae in a growing world of mixed peoples living in
fis edie ea gave Christianity its proseletyzing zeal and

ndeed anes complete monopoliok the approaches to God.

employed Ae a urthered the prophetic teachings of Judaism. ps
He used the trad: phraseology and imagery but gave them new meaning.
into a distinct a material, gave it his own emphasis, and moulded
Octrine. The core and strength of his teaching was the

107

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

doctrine of the kingdom of Heaven, in which the sovereignty of God
was supreme and absolute, and the nature of God was fatherly, loving,
and forgiving. Jesus was not greatly concerned with speculative questions
about God, or with abstract theories of his relationship to the soul and to
the world. His fatherly love, his transcendent righteousness, his mercy,
his goodness, were the facts of immediate experience. ‘The certainty of
God lay in the reality of consciousness and not in deductions by formal
logic.® The love of one’s fellow men and the renunciation of worldly
possessions were the important ethical tenets of Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus called himself the Son of God and also the Son of Man, but
he made little distinction between the two; in fact, he did not even
stress very much who or what he was. He emphasized his teachings,
Furthermore, in the Hellenistic world the title “Son of God” did not have
the same connotation as the faithful give it today. It was in fact fairly
common. Greek gods had sons, and famous men were often regarded
as sons of particular gods; for instance, Plato and Augustus as sons of
Apollo, Alexander of Zeus-Ammon. The Gnostics, too, were more of
less treated as divine. The title that occurs most often in the Gospels is
“Son of Man,” as used by Jesus himself. The implications of these terms
have been long disputed, but it appears that Jesus was reluctant to assume
the title “Son of God.”6 However, the New Testament refers to Jesus
throughout as the Messiah. The title “Son of God” was frequently used
for Jesus Christ when Christianity spread into the Mediterranean world.
It was borrowed from the Old Testament where it was applied to David
and other leaders. As the Jews were expecting the arrival of a Messiah, it

was perhaps convenient to describe Jesus in Jewish terms. The title “Lord
and Saviour” was also used for Me

and agreeable to the Greeks.

Christian indebtedness to the Jewish scriptures is more than amply
demonstrated by the fact that the Christians regard the Jewish Bible
as the Old Testament or Covenant of God with the ancient Israelites
and their own Bible as the New Testament or Covenant made by G°

through Jesus Christ. It has long been said that the New Testament

lies hidden in the Old ‘Testament, and that the Old is made explicit w
the New.

; ible
ssiah and was more comprehensibl

108

seer y

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

If the evidence of the recently discovered Dead Sea Scrolls is
considered, Christianity would appear all the more to owe its existence
not to divine intervention but to the processes of social and political
evolution. It was by sheer accident that in early 1947 some Bedouin
Arabs, whilst replenishing their freshwater supply at a spring on the
northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, seven miles south of modern
Jericho, found these scrolls in the caves of Qumran. Some six hundred
manuscripts have emerged from these caves but only a dozen are
complete. News of the first discovery was greeted with great excitement
onall sides, and amongst the seven scrolls then recovered from the tall jars
in the shepherd’s cave were copies of the biblical book Isaiah a thousand
years older than any Hebrew Old Testament then known. Whereas
the translators of the Scriptures had had to rely on mediaeval copies no
older than the ninth or tenth centuries, texts were now available which
the palaeographers dated as belonging to a century or so before Christ.°”
Within a year the scrolls were widely known amongst scholars and the
intense debate, the so-called “Battle of the Scrolls,” began concerning
their exact date,

‘These scrolls contain accounts of the puritanical and covenanting
Jewish sect, the Essenes, about whom a good deal was already known
from the ancient historians, particularly from Josephus of the first century.
The accounts bear such close resemblances to the New Testament,
particularly to St. John’s Gospel, that, if they are anterior to the
beginnings of Christianity, Jesus would appear, according to scholars
such as Dupont-Sommer of the Sorbonne and the more popular Edmund
ee pert: reincarnation of the earlier Essene teachers, and
ae ae oe would have anticipated Christianity. The Essenes
Ka tte a or their quietism, extreme piety, asceticism, abstinence
See : R easures, adherence to the Mosaic Law, communism, and
nee. out their sectarian teachings. They lived in a communal
Were also fee oo monastery, by the shores of the Dead Sea. They
manuscript ae or their faculty of beauty and clairvoyance; The oldest

ilic Peo Gvered so far is a small papyrus palimpsest whose pre-
haden i has been dated to the sixth or seventh century B.C.
slats of chee 2 S inscribed on parchment, papyrus, potsherds, and even

» Tange in date from the third century B.C. to mediaeval

109

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

times. The buildings at Qumran were destroyed by Vespasian in 68
during the First Jewish Revolt.

Opinion amongst theologians and scholars is sharply divided and the
volume of their interpretations is continually mounting. The Christian
scholars, however, point out that similarities between the priestly Essene
Teacher and Jesus Christ were slight and irrelevant compared to the
differences. The former, a leader of an extremist, exclusive sect living
a puritanical life, may well appear quite contrary to Christ, who freely
mixed with people and claimed to be the prophet of God. Even if the
Essene Teacher was crucified, the Christian apologists argue that his
death was not held as an atoning martyrdom as was Jesus’ crucifixion
Whatever the final verdict, if agreement is finally reached at all, the
new evidence has certainly caused a close re-examination of primitive
Christianity, which may well revolutionize the approach of traditional
Christian beliefs to Judaism.

When conscious adaptation is viewed along with the indirect and
imperceptible influence of other religions prevalent at the time and in
the regions where Christianity first emerged, the syncretic nature of
early Christianity becomes markedly visible. Syncretism, adaptation,
and resemblances between religious faiths, however, must be qualified

by the consideration that all religions are fundamentally the same and
that their missions are not com

petitive but complementary.
Of the myste. F >

ry cults—including those of Demeter; Dionysos Isis and
Serapis, the religion of the Great Mother (Magna Mater) Cybele and
Attis, Jehovah and Baal—which were prevalent in the Roman world,
the Persian cult of Mithraism, named after the faithful saviour who gave
his life in sacrifice for his people, was the most widespread, the most
moral, and commanded the highest devotion. At one time, especially
in the second and third centuries, it appeared that Mithraism would fil
the widespread religious need. In Rome alone there were at one time 0!
another more than a hundred temples dedicated to Mithra. Considering
the immense popularity of the Egyptian goddess Isis throughout the
Roman Empire, the emergence of Mithraism as the dominant faith
clearly testifies to its Power and prestige,

Mithraism was a formidable competitor of early Christianity. Renan’s
observation has often been quoted that if Christianity had failed, the

110

a E

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

whole of Europe would have been Mithraist. Before Mithraism, which
no longer survives as a form of worship, could be suppressed and its
temples in Rome demolished by Christians, Christianity adopted many
ofits doctrines and ceremonies. The Mithraic traditions and doctrines are
collected in the Avesta, and a yasht, a special hymn of praise is dedicated to
Mithra. Mithra is the Persian name of the vedic Mitra, the deity of light
and truth, warning against the powers of darkness in association with
Varuna. In India he was, in fact, regarded as the sun. In vedic texts, the
connection between Mithra and the bull, which dater became the focal
point of Mithraism is perhaps more clearly found than in the Avesta.
But the club of Mithraism appears to have come to the Roman Empire
from Iran, having been introduced to Rome by Cilioian seamen in about
68 s.c. In Zorastrianism, Mithra held a subordinate place amongst the
gods with a status of a Yasita but his worship, fostered by the Persian
kings and modified by Semitic influence, took deep root in western
Asia under the successors of Alexander, from where it expanded further
westward. Mithra was conceived as the intermediary between man and
the Supreme God and the redeemer of the human race. Mithraism,
in contrast to other mystery religions, contained a long and detailed
account of the life of Mithra from his miraculous creation from a rock
by the good power of Ahuramazda, to his ascension in the chariot of
the sun into heaven. He was the invincible warrior who attended upon
the Lord of Life, Ahuramazda, in eternal opposition to the evil god of
Death, Angra Mainyu.

Mithraism was enormously popular in the Roman army, especially
ase the pAs for Mithra was the unconquerable hero and a symbol
Ae fees skill against the toghe possible enemy. Therefore, une
atic, ment of the faith s Cisse aoe va the army, which
Seite ce numbers of Asian soldiers. Thus, Mithraism was gradually

ron I e corners OF the empire. In the garrison areas on the
w Mithra ace e, and the British frontier, UTS shrines dedicated
200 nga ee ce found. Over twenty Asian regiments of auxiliaries
of which meas si een stationed in various parts of Europe, the ae
and fourth ae refilled from the same areas. During the thir

Beste ieee 5 there were frequent shiftings of forces between
e western parts of the Roman Empire. But despite

111

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

these opportunities for spreading the cult and its own great popularity,
circumstances conspired against Mithraism and “the ultimate success,
permanent and undoubted, fell to the combination of Jewish and Greek
worship called Christianity.””

There are, however, many similarities between Christianity and
Mithraism. Besides sharing faith in a divine mediator and the hope of
resurrection, both taught the efficacy of prayer, sacramental union with
God, and his providential presence in all events of daily life. Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Eucharist of the Christians are analogous to
certain rites of Mithraism. It is not unlikely that Mithraic usages may
have passed into the practice of the Christian Church, and the influence
of Mithraic architecture on its Christian counterpart is undoubted. But
the redeemer, Mithra, unlike Christ, had no historical personality.” Both
faiths borrowed from each other, although Christianity appears to have
done so more extensively.

‘The early Christians were also profoundly impressed by the personality
and legends of Orpheus. This is attested to, for example, by his presence
in the art of the Roman catacombs. The much discussed haematite seal-
cylinder, or amulet, of possibly the third century, now preserved in Berlin,
shows a crucified man with the name “Orpheus” inscribed around it in
Greek letters. This is regarded as evidence of the syncretism of Orphic
and Christian ideas. It is also suggested that the crucifixion of Orpheus
was an old tradition, and that Christian representations of the crucifixion
ae do not P back beyond the fifth or sixth century.” Both the Orphic
cee and Jesus Christ were the sons of God; both suffered, died,
oe pe Tn fact, in the Hellenistic world other gods, such
note Gere associated with similar legends. It is suggest
iat a a ee borrowed, it did so from the ae
Christian eschatologi eee an fom Chess gone pa

gical dogmas are traced to Orphic beliefs. The idea 0
origin in the Orphic notion of an intermediate state 0
death and the final bliss of the deified soul.” Howeveh

eristic parts of Orphic eschatology, reincarnation an
the wheel of birth, find no place in orthodox E

By this time the Jews had dispersed throughout the Mediterranea?
world, building their Synagogues, and retaining their distinct identity

112

life on earth after

see

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Rome recognized Judaism as a permitted (licit) religion. The gospel had to
be preached to the mixed audiences of the Hellenistic world in intelligible
terms. These audiences, in turn, interpreted the teachings in a way that
suited their own spiritual needs. Hellenistic Christianity thus came to
vary from the original Palestinian version. “Hellenistic Christianity was
no unitary phenomenon, but mainly a remarkable product of syncretism.
It was full of tendencies and contradictions some of which were to be
condemmed later on by orthodox Christianity as heretical, and which also
explain the struggles between the various tendencies, of which the Pauline
Epistles give such a vivid impression.” Examples of such contradictions
and alterations are innumerable. The person of Jesus is sometimes defined
in terms of Jewish and apocalyptic categories, sometimes as the “Lord” of
the cultus, as a mystery deity, yet sometimes as the Gnostic redeemer, the
pre-existent being from the heavenly world, whose earthly body is only
an outworldly garb. The Christian community is sometimes described
in Jewish terms as the people of God and in Gnostic terms as the “body
of Christ,” into which individuals are incorporated by means of the
sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.”

These contradictions were inevitable for Christianity was in its
formative stages struggling to gain converts in a highly complex and
mixed community. It not only profited by the concepts and experiences of
others but sometimes made concessions to them to gain their acceptance.
For example, the view of Jesus as a redeemer of mankind was not a
Judaic Concept, nor was it held by the first Christians in Palestine. The
Messiah the Jews and the Christians expected was not the Son of God,
but a Messenger of God. But Mithra was a redeemer of mankind and
SS Adonis, and Osiris. It was when Christianity spread
Guo si that the idea of Jesus as a saviour God emerged,
ay ase os ly existing concepts. Tt may be recalled that during the

€ was said of Jesus the teacher; it was Christ the Saviour

WI ‘
vas the Christian Lord. Whether it had been Jesus or Mithra,

cae ve made little difference in the redemptionist doctrines,
ater, that nea observances. It was only in 324, several centuries
nstantine oe at the Council of Nicaea, called by Emperor

» formally accepted by a majority vote Jesus Christ as the

avi
Sur God.” Tt was the birthday of Mithra, 25 December (the winter

113

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

solstice), that was taken by the early Christians as the birthday of Jesus,
The need and urgency for early Christianity to compromise with existin

traditions are further illustrated by the fact that even the Sabbath, the
Jewish seventh day, Saturday, appointed a day of rest by God in the
Mosaic Law and hallowed by his own resting on this day after the work
of Creation, was abandoned in favour of the Mithraic first day, the Day
of the Conquering Sun, Sunday. The worshippers of Mithra were called
“Soldiers of Mithra” which is probably the origin of the term “Soldiers
of Christ” and of the exhortations to Christians to “put on the armour
of light,” Mithra being the God of Light. The most frequent theme of
Christ as the Good Shepherd is reminiscent of a similar identification of
Mithra who was often called the Good Shepherd. And it is interesting
to note that since Mithra was addressed as Dominus, Sunday must have
been “the Lord’s Day” long before Christian times. Concepts such as
“the blood of the Lamb” or “Taurus the Bull” were similarly borrowed
from Mithraism. The Last Supper (the Eucharist) was taken from
Mithraism to combine with the sacred meal of Palestinian Christianity.
The ceremony of eating an incarnate god’s body and drinking his blood
is of remote antiquity, with its origin in cannibalistic practices, and there
could have been several sources for the Christian rite, but its connection

with the Mithraic Eucharist is most apparent.” The Mithraic Eucharist

is the commemoration of Mithra’s Last Supper in a cave with Sol Helios
before ascending to heaven. So

me scholars believe the Resurrection of
Christ derived from the Vigil of Mithra, who after his death reappeared
to watch continuously over the faithful. The extent of the indebtedness
of Christianity to pagan religion is so great that, “provided there was @

Judaic-Christian nucleus at all, very little indeed need have been supplied
by the Palestinian Christians,”””

No country affected the develo

pment of the Christian religion mot
profoundly than Egypt; indeed, n

oN a 0 city affected the development of ae
Christian religion more profoundly than Alexandria. In Horus, who w4

at once the son of Osiris and identical with Osiris, the Christians found
an illuminating analogue. And, like Isis, the mother of Horus, Mary
was elevated to a rank of quasi-divinity, Christianity also adopted the

A S 5 i ne
ts. For instance, its priests copied ti

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

another and the original revolutionary teaching was buried under acquired
customs.

In monasticism alone Egypt laid an indelible mark on Christianity.
The formation and development of monasticism did not take place in
the Greek-speaking capital Alexandria, but amongst the native Coptic-
speaking Christians of Egypt. The influence on the Church of early
ascetics produced by Coptic Christianity proved to be considerable.
“Although monasticism spread quickly thence to Syria, it is admitted
that the first Christian hermits and monasteries were Egyptian and there
is some evidence for the existence there of pagan hermits. Egypt was a
most religious country, but it does not appear that asceticism, celibacy
or meditation formed part of its older religious life, and their appearance
in Hellenistic times may be due to a wave of Asian influence starting
originally from India.”

‘The most outstanding legacy of Egypt, which deeply influenced all
later history of the Church, “has been the scientific Platonizing theology,
which the Catechetical school of Alexandria was beginning to fashion at
the close of the second century and which the comprehensive genius of
Origen carried to a successful issue in the first half of the third century.””
Pantaenus, the founder of this famous Christian college at Alexandria,
who played a significant role in the spread of Christianity in Egypt, was
one of the earliest Christian missionaries on record to visit India in the
third century. It was he who found that there was a Christian church in
India reputed to have been founded by St. Bartholomew. Clement of
Gea whose knowledge of India was remarkably accurate for the
m A > o pupil and occupied the chair vacated by his teacher
fuer. twenty years of the second cenia A pupil of Pantaenus
besten rae 7 well as of the Neoplatonist, Ammonius Lacoas, Origen
E ca ofthe Catechetical school in 203. Origen vese man oi
mietempsyehosis S are greatly influenced Christian thought. His belief in

eine eee escribed as heretical, was possibly determined by Indian
aie faeces out that mankind has two different ideals, detachment
detachirone x comments that the Christian doce has also peared

ee ae the Same way as did ancient Greece and India.
Superiority oe eee including those who accept the merase
stianity, have maintained that Christianity’s rise in the

115

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Roman world was largely due to its syncretic nature. Christianity acquired
greater strength in its struggle against existing faiths by voluntarily
adopting their better elements. People, regardless of their colour or
nationality, travelled freely in the Empire and Eastern peoples visited
Rome in increasing numbers. ‘Their religious beliefs won large numbers
of converts in Roman society, thus narrowing “the gap between the old
religions and Christianity, and in such a way as to make the triumph of
Christianity an evolution, not a revolution.”®!

Religions spread generally through immigration, conversion, and
conquest. ‘The expansion of Islam was largely a matter of conquest, which
did not figure at all in the spread of Buddhism. Christianity, however,
spread in all three of these ways, although during the early centuries it
was mainly carried across national frontiers by missionary zeal and the
movement of people. In spite of the inadequacy of reliable information
on the subject, there is considerable evidence to suggest that there was
a great deal of racial intermixture in Rome. By the time of Nero, a
great many of Rome’s senators and knights were descendants of slaves,
many of Eastern stock, and the native population had dwindled toa
surprisingly small proportion of the whole; by far the largest part of the
populace—perhaps ninety percent—had Oriental blood in their veins.

When Paul reached Rome as a prisoner, the city itself had an Eastern

population of above halfa million. The immense popularity of the Eastern

y the frequent street processions
ngs, and dances, and by widespread
n, immorality, and the imminente
not only the increasing number

growing influence of imported
nt and Dobschutz, hold the view
e explained in moral terms alone:

India had been in close con

tact with the areas in which the accounts
of the Gospels originated and

the Jewish faith flourished, and it is mo"

116

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

than likely that Indian religious ideas and legends were well known
there. Indians possessed a greater missionary zeal for spreading ideas,
rather than making converts, than they are generally credited with. Some
Indian influences on the developing ideas of early Christianity were felt
directly, whilst others were transmitted through other prevalent religions
and intellectual movements. Even to understand the Jewish religion,
which formed the immediate background of Christianity, non-semitic
influences on Palestine and Syria must be considered.

Numerous authorities, such as Hilgenfeld and Renan, maintain
that there was Buddhist influence on the Essene doctrines. And it was
through this Jewish sect that Buddhist influences reached Palestine and
later filtered through to Christianity. On the authority of Philo (25 B.c.
A.D. 40), Josephus, and Pliny, the Essenes were a peace-loving people
who despised riches and lived in villages because the cities were rife with
evil. Extremely charitable, they practiced love of God, virtue, and man.
They thought of pleasure as evil, objected to animal sacrifice, abstained
from temple-worship, ate no meat, and drank no wine. They abjured
marriage but adopted other peoples’ children. They were known for their
simple piety, sense of justice, powers of endurance, and brotherly love.
Admission into their sect was difficult, requiring years of probation,
oaths of rigorous discipline, good conduct, and secrecy. They regarded
the body as corruptible, but the soul as immortal, entombed for a time
in the flesh, from which, when released, it rejoices and mounts upward.
ue) accepted the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. The life led
ues Essenes was “just as might have been evolved by seekers after truth
z anma to Put into Bracco another country the FOI ideals
ate ae es are differences: for instance these communities laboured
ee ree and observed the seventh day, but crew main ideas,

A mies the world and SURES of the passions, are those of

Ane and foreign to Egyptian and Jewish thought.
totally see ewin number—about four thousand—their influence was
an Essene RE to their numbers. John the Baptist was possibly

ead Sea. The ad spent his period of preparation in the vicinity of the
the ee Se of the Dead Sea Scrolls clearly suggests that
Judaism Gnas o Qumran near the Dead Sea represented a type of

was “particularly subject to external influences.” Moffatt

117

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

remarks, “Buddhistic tendencies helped to shape some of the Essenic
characteristics.”* Jesus himself was greatly influenced by the tenets of
the Essenes, even if he did not actually belong to this sect or live with
them at Qumran during the time preceding his ministry. His teachings of
non-resistance to evil and salvation by the forgiveness of sins, like those
of John the Baptist whom Jesus regarded as his master and forerunner,
have been attributed to the Essenes. It is significant that the Essenes,
who, through the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls have come to claim
a share in the development of Christian doctrine, were in 1867 described
by a German scholar, Hilgenfeld, as Buddhist.*”

The Book of Enoch, a remarkable Hebrew work which was written
before the rise of Christianity in about 80 B.c., is believed to be the source
of some Christian beliefs. Although full of non-Jewish speculations, the
book was written for the Jews and deals with their final deliverance, the
blessed lot of the righteous, and the damnation of the wicked. The older
of the two forms of the book never mentions the speculations about the
Son of Man, the later one does. Enoch, the saint of hoary antiquity who
was transported alive to heaven, preaches of the coming world judgment.
His sermons lack the charm and elegance of the parables of Jesus, but
Jesus’ maxims are related to and dependent on this literature in style

and construction, and “the contents of many sayings of Jesus are related
to those of Enoch and some m

four titles attributed to
Righteous One, the Ele

ay almost appear as quotations. ”® The
Jesus in the New Testament—the Christ, the
ct One, and the Son of Man—are all to be found
in the Book of Enoch. But the idea of a Son of God who was also a Son
of Man, as Rudolf Otto points out, certainly did not originate in Israel
but has its roots in Aryan antiquity. Although what ancient figure W35
once the Starting point of this

“the phrase, ‘this Son of Ma
the Aryan past.”® Radhakris

Son of God. It is the anci
and Jesus continues.”

In a detailed analysis of non-Jewish influences on early Christianity)
Otto has traced the Indian infi

uence on a number of the ideas set f0

118

ent Hindu tradition which Enoch illustrates

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

by Enoch. The process of spiritual ascent, unclothing and reclothing,
described in the Book of Enoch, has a clear analogy in the Indo-Aryan
East. Altered and abridged but unchanged in essence, the process is found
in India in the Kaushitaki-Upanishad. Composed long before the birth
of Christianity, this text details the ascent of the soul and its journey
through the higher spheres: the sphere of the moon as entrance to the
lower celestial region, the sphere of fire, the ever higher spheres, and
finally the Brahman sphere where the soul enters the world above and
meets Brahman itself.” The predicates which are attributed to Enoch’s
God are also found in the Upanishads.” Eschatological systems put forth
in the apocalyptic Book of Enoch, on which the Christian eschatology
was modelled, had a more remote origin in ancient Aryan sources.
The concept of the Kingdom of God, although its interpretation is a
controversial topic in Christian theology, is one of the most fundamental
of the beliefs which are generally held to have been appropriated from
Judaism.” “The ultimate source of the idea of the Kingdom,” observes
Otto, “lies still farther back in the prehistoric period of Aryan religion,
viz. in Asura religion. The latter arose before the separation of Iranians
and Indians, whose oldest sacred documents exist interspersed in the
Veda of India.?™ By the time of the Rig Veda, however, this concept
of Kingdom had become a definite term, Kshatra Varshishta, the most
glorious Kingdom. It is described as spiritual, truthful, and purposeful.
And the prayer is offered:

O, that we
In your far extended Kingdom
Which protects many, may be made one.”

ee Seu, the Buddhists, and the Zoroastrians, like the Christians,
Kalbe canna that the Kingdom of God is not of this world, and is not
of Jesus ¢ ae ae paradise on earth. The universalism and pacifism
e cts with the Jewish exclusiveness and militarism. His
Preachings Pa ae to all alike, irrespective of race and nationality. His
Worldliness 5 ife of self-control tantamount to asceticism and other-
with Jewish rE parents and possessions, are not in accordance
radition, which has little in it of an ascetic character and

119

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

has accepted the uninterrupted continuance of the present world order,
But self-control and asceticism were emphasized centuries ago both by
the Upanishads and the Buddha. “It is not too much to say,” wrote Rhys
Davids, “that almost the whole of the moral teaching of the Gospels
as distinct from the dogmatic teaching, will be found in Buddhist
writings, several centuries older than the Gospels; that for instance, of
all the moral doctrines collected together in the so-called Sermon on
the Mount, all those which can be separated from the theistic dogmas
there maintained are found again in the Pitakas.”®° The Christian view
of future life, again, was not determined by Jewish nor by prevalent
Hellenistic conceptions. The Jews were satisfied with the conception of
Sheol, because the jurisdiction of Yahweh, a god of the living, did not
extend to it, and they stressed the importance of life on earth. Excepting
the mystery cults of Plato and Pythagoras, Greek eschatology was
primitive and singularly unattractive whilst Roman belief in immortality
was feeble. Christian ideas of eschatology, such as the consciousness of
sin, the need of healing and redemption, or rewards and punishments,
which were so different from those of the Old Testament and yet so
well-developed, may well have been formulated in the atmosphere where
Eastern mystical experience and intellectual speculation had reacted on
Western concepts.

Jesus, no doubt, Principally enlarged, and transformed the Jewish
concepHens but he did so in the light of personal experiences in @
cosmopolitan area where a Variety of cultures, including that of India,
had intermingled to produce a distinct religious environment. “In his
aoe a ae a God, life eternal, ascetic emphasis, a
TOAS = Hinda R Sane away from the Jewish tradition a :
historically continuous with Jud tet recuse ppouaiis Saale
essentials.” Whilst Judaism oe meee Zoe develop Boni sere
and Buddhism were. nota proselytizing religion, Christi
leader ot meng oe en fa gig fom ati

el : » and even God Himself. This diversity °
a ry
early Church. The four oy l e iaie © ts

pels which preserve the memory of fa¢

120

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

were based on a living tradition and written long after the crucifixion
of Christ at various dates from 65 to around 100. ‘These Gospels agree
in most essentials but differ in minor details. The New Testament
comprises these four Gospels, a Church history, twenty-one epistles, and
an apocalypse. Most of these were originally written in Greek—although
perhaps some Gospels were based on prototypes composed in Aramaic.
The Gospels are attributed to four saints, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and
John in this chronological order; and the Church history, or the Acts of
the Apostles, to Luke.”* Of the thirteen epistles attributed to St. Paul six
are of major significance. The Apocalypse, or the Revelation of St. John
The Divine, is attributed to the apostle John but is almost certainly the
work of some unidentified Ephesian mystic. It is addressed, in epistolary
form, to the seven churches in Asia. Most of the canonical books of the
New Testament, especially the epistles of St. Paul and St. John, do not
belong to the Palestinian tradition. And the Greek influence on them
is keenly debated.”

Scholars have been profoundly struck and at times perplexed by the
remarkable similarities between the Gospel story and the life and teaching
of the Buddha, as told in the La/itavistara, and between the Buddhist
and Christian parables and miracles. Both the Buddha and Christ were
miraculously conceived and wondrously born and angels rejoiced at both
births, 1° although there is no story of a virgin birth in Buddhism, the
paternity of Suddhodhana never being questioned. It is also not claimed
pads was the Enlightened One from birth. The annunciation
see to Mary is, however, paralleled—although remotely—by the
ae ie aya at the commencement of her conception. Again, Christ
ae nae È the royal tribe of Judah and not the priestly tribe of Levi;
E 5 was born in a royal household of the Kshatriya (warrior),

ee e Brahman (priestly) caste. An identity in the names of

ae Saas and Mary, through Maia, the mother of the Greek
sesame ae Mercury, the messenger of the gods to man, has been
on ten ai luminous before the birth of Christ and the child is
the infant Chan. = impurity. Just as the aged Simeon sang worshipping
onmino : > Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depa ig peace,
visited a ave seen my salvation,” so the old hermit Asita, who
infant Buddha, paid homage and lamented that he would

121

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

not live to see the Great Enlightenment which he prophesied. Whether
the Evangelists appropriated the Buddhist tale and grafted it into their
own conceptual tradition or not, there is no doubt of the antiquity and
originality of the Buddhist legend. Both Jesus and Siddhartha revealed
their unusual wisdom at about the same age, twelve: Jesus through learned
discourses, Siddhartha through meditation.

Nothing is known of Jesus’ life during the next seventeen years and
there have developed a variety of legends and literature suggesting that
he travelled in India, or Egypt, or lived with the Essenes at Qumran.
The Gospels, however, refute these suggestions by implication. Whether
Jesus travelled abroad or not, that he chose to remain unknown after
having revealed himself and his wisdom causes some surprise. As Jesus
is claimed to be God, it could not have been a period of preparation.
In contrast, more is known of the Buddha’s life, his childhood, youth,
marriage, increasing discontent with the world, renunciation, quest of
Enlightenment, and finally his attainment of the Buddahood, followed
by a long period of missionary activity until he died. Whilst Jesus was
born as the Christ, Siddhartha became the Buddha.}

Christianity, like Buddhism, is based on the teachings of a divine
founder, in contrast to the two semitic religions, Islam and Judaism. In
the Quran the prophet Muhammad is categorically asserted to be a man
like any other, and Judaism has no single founder. “Christ” is the Greek
rendering of the Hebrew “Messiah,” the “Anointed” who had long been
awaited, whilst the Buddha is “the incarnation of buddhi, the Sanskrit
nae ee intuitional intellect, the intermediary between Absolute

and man’s mind, and therefore fundamentally the same as the

Word or Logos which descends from God to man, from Absolute Being
S F on being.” If Christ was betrayed by J udas, a
John can be Pa y Devadatta. The parallel of the beloved discip'®
$ in Ananda, yet neither of these two was chosen t0

step into the shoes of the Master after his death Both the Buddha
and Christ were miraculou :

aa 5 a sense of expectancy in both religions
the Christians await the second coming of Christ and the Buddhist
the Maitreya Buddha." Both the Buddha and Christ command theif

disciples to collect a treasure which neither moth nor rust would corrup®

122

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

nor thieves steal. Indeed, the similarities even in detail are many and
close. For instance, in Iisa Jataka (No. 78) the Buddha miraculously
feeds five hundred “Brethren” with a single cake, just as Christ fed a
multitude of four thousand with a few loaves of bread. In the Si/anisamsa-
Jataka (No. 190) an eager disciple of the Buddha, who finds no boat to
take him across the river and who was deeply absorbed in thoughts of
his Master, walks on the water which solidified under his feet. In the
middle the waves rise and he loses his faith and begins to sink. When
a renewed mental effort fortifies his faith in the Buddha, he goes safely
to the other side. Max Miiller remarks that mere walking on water is
not an uncommon story, but walking by faith and sinking for want of
it can only be accounted for by some historical contact or transference,
“and in this case we must remember that the date of the Buddhist
parable is chronologically anterior (some centuries) to the date of the
Gospel of St. Luke.”!°” Winternitz suggests that a number of Buddhist
legends in the Apocryphal gospels are so clearly Indian in character that
their Egyptian or Palestinian origins can hardly be sustained. Images
prostrate themselves before the young Christ in a temple in Egypt just
as they do before the young Buddha in the temple of Kapilavastu. The
similarity between the temptations of the Buddha and Christ and their
transfiguration is too close for them to be wholly independent of each
other. Both the Buddha and Christ, as was Zoroaster, were tempted by
the Evil One at about the same time in their careers. All the accounts of
the transfiguration of the two teachers agree not only in describing the
shining body butin including a reference to impending death. Even in the
P Judaic of the epistles in the New Testament the phrase “the wheel
ae occurs, which Schopenhauer ascribed to Indian influence. ihe
To lo eae of Buddhism is substantially reproduced in Christianity.
ae me one’s enemies, to bless them that curse, to do good to them
ne eee turn the other cheek, to leave the cloak with him who laes
é ee x E al to ista wate asks, which are the teachings of ests
meee a akrishnan, are precepts not only taught but practiced
Hoe Ag vigour by the Buddha in his many lives, according to
ae ae Christ and the Buddha, as did the Upanishads before
New Sane ed the sacrifice of natural existence as the condition of a
Cs Possibly some of the stories and incidents are common

123

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

tales of a widespread folklore. Yet, not a similarities between the two
religions can be traced to natural evolution: : F

Many similarities between Christian and Buddhist monastic systems,
vestments and rituals, the worship of saints, images, and conceptions of
heaven and hell are remarkably close. All religions have sacrifice, priests,
incense, and an idea of faith, but when these universal similarities are
accounted for and when all allowance is made for similar causes and
coincidences, it is hard to believe that a collection of practices such
a clerical celibacy, confession, the veneration of relics, and the use of
rosary and bell, could have originated independently in both religion: ©
Celibacy, relics, and confession have no counterparts in Jewish, Syrian,
or Egyptian antiquity, whereas they are known to be old Buddhist
institutions. In 1842 two French missionary travellers to Tibet, Hue and
Gabet, were shocked at the close resemblances between Catholic and
Lamaistic ritual." Indeed, Lamaistic Buddhism, which did not follow
the serene metaphysical teaching of the Buddha closely, represented
demons and torments of hell as lurid as those of mediaeval Christianity.
The similarities between the Tibetan religion and Christianity are so
close that the former has often been de
Christianity.

In spite of these many parallels and similarities, the two religions are
greatly different in temperament. Whilst Buddhism is rationalistic, non-
dualistic, and even agnostic, Christianity is completely devotional and
dualistic. The Buddha did not teach of God and His relation with this
world, but Christ's main thesis was that God created this world which
Helos deeply. The Buddha preached that nirvana was unobtainable by
pleasure or rites but only through an unselfish life of renunciation. Christ
taught neither asceticism nor metempsychosis. Unlike the Buddha,

signated as a corrupted form of

and prescribed it for religious purposes. He praised poverty and the p ws

Keyserling, however, noticed a great affinity of spirit between Mahayan@

Buddhism and Christianity; and although he considered Mahayanis™
to be far superior to Christi

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

spite of their diversities, the same fundamental doctrines do exist in both
religions. Apart from the many other similarities, he has endeavoured
to show that “the Christian doctrine of original sin and redemption
corresponds to the Four Noble Truths that form the doctrinal basis of
Buddhism; that there is suffering, that there is a cause for suffering, that
there is a cure for suffering, and that there is a path to this cure.”
Broadly speaking, both religions were missionary, zealous to bring other
men into their fold, and were universal in outlook postulating that all men
share a common human nature, feel a common need for salvation, and
have a capacity to avail themselves of that salvation. A number of scholars
from different countries, such as Rudolf Seydel, A. J. Edmonds, and
Richard Garbe, have insisted on the Christian indebtedness to Buddhism.
Others, apart from those who instinctively find it uncomfortable to
acknowledge Christian obligation to non-Christian sources and insist
on its originality and divine revelation, deny such an indebtedness and
attribute all similarities to parallel development. There is no documentary
proof of borrowing or of the suggestion that Jesus had travelled in the
East. However, in the nineteenth century, Nicholas Notovitch published
astudy, The Unknown Life of Christ, asserting that during his long period
of obscurity Jesus had stayed with Brahman and Buddhist monks, who
m P him into Indian religions. The book was first published in
re and was edited, abridged, and translated into English by Violet
T : This study was based on the materials Notovitch had
site me his travels in India and Tibet, particularly on the records
ae ee iscovered by him at the convent Himis. Inevitably the book
ali nets Contos aad! reproach from some theologians. Max
ee a Notovitch’s assertions and questioned the authenticity
S n s evidence. Despite this, Notovitch reaffirmed his views when
Ei T was published.
z ae aie owns how Christianity arrived in India during the
of Christiang = Syrian Christians of Malabar believe that their form
x E is apostolic, derived directly from the Apostle Thomas.!”
me is said to have landed at Malankora near Cronganore,
Umber of ae port on India’s west coast, in 52 and to have founded a
coast Where oe in southern India. He then crossed over to the east
e died in 68. Over the place he was buried at Mylapore,

n

125

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

then called Calamina in Madras, there still exists the magnificent Tom}
of St. Thomas which is, however, now empty, the Portuguese havin
removed the remains to Lisbon in 1523.1" The evidence certainly does
indicate that India and Christianity were in close contact during the
period of the latter's formative stages. If Christianity could reach India
during the first century and find a sanctuary so firm that it has survived
all these hundreds of years, why could not Indian religions, especially
Buddhism which was equally proselytizing, reach western Asia and the
Graeco-Roman world and find a footing there? The road surely must
have been open both ways.

Once Christianity was introduced into India, it was inevitable thatit
should have had some influence on Indian religious thought. In fact, itis
surprising that it did not have more influence, fertilizing Indian thought
in much the same way as Buddhism did in China. For, whilst retaining
an identity of its own, Buddhism also gave rise to a new syncretic
philosophical school, Neoconfucianism, In contrast, Christianity retained
its separate identity and inspired no new schools of philosophy. However,
in the last century Albrecht Weber and other scholars suggested that
the cult of Krishna with it emphasis on bhakżi, love or devotion, was
a corrupt form of Christianity. Weber’s theory aroused lively literary

debate, and many Indologists opposed his view. Bhandarkar pointed out
th

€ positive existence of the Krishna cult in India prior to the advent of
Christianity; Krishna is mentioned in Panini’s Vasudeva Sutra and in the
works of Patanjali. Supported by this evidence, Garbe exploded Weber’
assertion finally by pointing out that the cult of Krishna was already
of some importance in the first century B.c. The priority of the cult oi

Krishna, however, cannot rule out the possibility that it later adopted
some legends or features from Christianity.

Wnirsr Curistianrry was forming,
afoot. Some neglected the Old Testa
prevalent and peculiarly Hellenistic fy
science. Amongst the better known r
are Jewish Platonism, Gnosticism,
distinct personalities and varied in:
beliefs, such as an abstract concept

other religious movements Tee
ment altogether and relied on the
sion of concepts of philosophy 2
eligious movements of Alexandri?
and Neoplatonism. Despite wee
spirations, they all shared certa”
of God as the transcendent absolut?
126

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

unity, the notion of an intermediary power to bridge the chasm between
God and the world, the connection of matter with the principle of evil,
and an emphasis on the ability of asceticism to realize absolute truths.
Mysticism was particularly stressed and the dominant belief was in the
immortality of the soul, imprisoned in a mortal body, which expressed
itself in the Greek words, soma sema, the body a tomb. Belief in the
Ptolemaic system of astronomy and in the auxiliary systems it created
was also popular. These concepts which were widely held in the Graeco-
Roman world during the first two centuries were neither Jewish nor
Christian in origin. It is extremely significant that it was against this
background, and indeed during the period of ascendancy of non-Jewish
and non-Christian doctrines, that these syncretistic religious movements
developed. These movements were so alien to Greek traditions that M.
Vacherot asserts that the philosophy of the Alexandrians derived nothing
from Greek philosophy except its language and its methods; the essentials
were all Eastern."

With Philo (ca. 25 B.c.-a.p. 40), Jewish philosophy reached full
maturity. He interpreted Jewish scriptures freshly and systematically. Not
much is known of his life, but his pious and generous character clearly
emerges from his many works expounding Judaism to the Hellenistic
world. Deeply impressed by Greek philosophy, he aimed to reconcile
Jewish thought and customs with Greek ideas, particularly Plato’s. The
biblical concept of God emphasized both the transcendence and the
‘mmanence of the Supreme Being, which did not quite agree with either
the Platonic notion of God as the idea of the good which was the measure
of all things, or the Stoic concept of Logos as an all-pervading divine
eee God was wholly transcendent, and the Stoic one wholly
cn a n working outa reconciliation between the biblical and the

pts, Philo treated the Universe as a graded hierarchy of beings

Om stones to plants, animals, men, demons, and gods. Philo’s God is

the essential bein f th “als i ipresent.
g of the world, eternal, indescribable, and omnipres

ne saw matter also as distinct, eternal, and increate, although it has
World ATI or form until infused with divine force. To create the
employed ne form to matter and to establish a link with man, God

j a variety of intermediary beings, designated as angels by Jews,

lam
nes by Greeks, and ideas by Plato. The world, which was a stage in

127

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

ae

the ascent of the soul to God, is God’s only beloved Son produced by the i

union of God with , his knowledge. The distinction which Philo made

between a transcendent God and wisdom or knowledge departs from |

the Hebrew doctrine of creation, because it admits the pre-existence of
wisdom, although this distinction between God and wisdom is also made
by an earlier Jewish text, The Book of Wisdom. In spite of his devotion to

Jewish thought, Philo was very appreciative of the contemplative monks |

of Egypt, the Therapeutae, and also of the Essenes in whose Precepts |

the influence of Hindu and Buddhist thought has already been noted,
There is a distinct mystic element in Philo’s thought. The way to a vision
of God lay through a detachment from the world and an embracing of
the contemplative life, which must be preceded by “excising desires,
pleasures, griefs, fears, follies, injustices.” The body is the source of evil
and man must free himself from its chains. Divine vision can be gained
only when he is “lifted above and out of himself.” Philo’s insistence on
monotheism, his contempt for idolatry, and his claim that the Jews had
in the Mosaic revelation the highest religious knowledge were, no doubt,
Judaic, but other elements in his mysticism which are paralleled in Hindu
thought could have been influenced by Indian mysticism. For there is
no doubt that genuine Indian mysticism had found a firm foothold in
western Egypt, and its first fusion appears to have been with the Egyptian
Judaism of Alexandria.¥6
Another important school of thought in the first century was
Neo-pythagoreanism, Very little is known of but two of its members,
Apollonius of Tyana (born in 4 B.c.), and Moderatus of Gades."”
X z he es yana came to study at Taxila in India about 50. Te
E = ee ee from his biography written by ree
frequent cae g me authenticity and reliability of this wor sf
practiced strict eae aie u pea i
icism. He renounced wine, meat, and other phys!“
pleasures iG Was opposed to blood sacrifices and insisted on pray“
ico weg mre cen mdai Y
saint and wanderin a h $ Beeaucediso Ne Saat od.
Temples and see ae erie x eee beworship ped aa
: te erected in his honour in Asia Minor an
was held to be a rival to Jesus Christ by the opponents of Christianit:

128

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Others accused him of sorcery and called him the prince of impostors,
but, according to his disciples, he “taught the purest of religions, and
in India especially, a country which long before Egypt and in different
fashion had enjoyed the favour of divine wisdom, had found the evidence
and inspiration to support his faith.”!!*

Neopythagoreanism was the first product of an age in which abstract
philosophy had begun to lose prestige, and it attempted to introduce a
religious element into pagan philosophy in place of what had come to
be regarded as an arid formalism. Many Neopythagoreans, like many
Neoplatonists, made conscious efforts to arrest the growth of Christianity
by converting philosophy to a non-Christian religion. The founders of
this school sought to invest their doctrines with the halo of tradition by
ascribing them to Pythagoras and Plato. They identified the good with the
one and emphasized the fundamental distinction between the soul and
the body. God was to be worshipped and the soul freed from the body,
and, in the interest of the spiritual purity of the soul, sensuous pleasure
was to be abandoned. It is said that Neopythagoreanism provided a
link between the doctrines of Plato and Neoplatonism. Certainly, the
similarities between Essene thought and Neopythagoreanism are close
and striking. In any case there are elements in this philosophy not only
of Pythagoras’ and Plato’s systems but also of Indian philosophy.

Jewish philosophy as interpreted by Philo may or may not have
been influenced by Indian thought, but the speculations of its rivals,
ence including Valentinus and Basilides, definitely were, for
oe aA was a deliberate attempt to fuse Christian, Platonic, and
a ote Gnostics were strongly anti-Jewish, professedly
beings The an regarded the God of the Old Tetra as an inferior
eg cae and significance of Gnosticism; however, has been
Mage Adit since its inception, A very significant product

ellenistic ae age, it is sometimes stretched to cover all varieties of
criticism of Sore including the doctrines of Plotinus in Spite of his
aa a m Itis common practice nowadays to include the
iterature, ae « anichaean religions, as well as part of the Hermetic

cee ieee In antiquity the followers es the gnostic SIS
Preachers ș A escribe themselves as “Gnostics,” and the Christian
poke of them as members of various sects often named after

129

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

their founders. Apart from the reason that different interpretations were
given to the term “gnostic,” which is held to be the distinctive feature of |

the movement, a major reason contributing to this confusion must be the
religion’s very syncretistic nature for it was a movement which covered
many sects and widely differing tenets prevailing in the Graeco-Roman
world during and prior to the early days of Christianity when it was
gradually crystallizing into the ancient Catholic Church.”

The gnostic movement came into prominence at the beginning of the
second century and reached its height in the latter half of that century,
By the middle of the third century it had begun to wane, although it
continued in other forms for a century or two, and many of its ideas
survived in later mysticisms. Its last, and perhaps greatest, manifestion
was in the composite religion of Mani. It was revived in mediaeval Europe
and is reputed to be connected with the downfall of the ‘Templars. In
modern times much of the symbolism of the Freemasons is held to be
unmistakably Gnostic in origin."

Gnosticism, as an intellectual activity, was chiefly concerned with
attempting to work out a reconciliation between philosophy and theology,
although, during its heyday, it had support from men of both philosophy
and science. Its fundamental concept, gnosis, or the knowledge of God,
is similar to the Jnanakanda of the Hindus, but many of its adherents
interpreted “gnosis” not as “knowledge” or “understanding,” but as

revelation.” It was deeply mystical, and like other mystical religions,
subscribed to the ultimate object of individual salvation, seeking a secure
and comfortable habitat for the soul after death, and worshipping +
redeemer or deity. Gnosticism also emphasized the special value of

sacraments, rituals, acts of initiation and consecration, and symbols
and formulae.

Only a few of the Gnostic texts

. a i £
f 3 » which were extraordinarily numerous
survived destruction by their C

hristian opponents. Consequently, oe
knowledge about the Gnostics is derived almost exclusively from the

extracts and fragments found in the writings of those Christians who

aked and sought to discredit Gnostic doctrines. Broadly speaki8
Gnosticism is regarded as havi g descended from Indian miysticis™

heterodox Judaism, heterodox Christianity, or Hellenism. All these vie"
are widely held. The controversy, however, appears to be futile becaus’

130

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Gnosticism, being a deliberate syncretism, contains certain elements from
all these blended into its own mould. It was regarded for a long time
as an “acute Hellenization of Christianity” and as a movement within
Christianity, but further research has now established that it was “really
a religious movement of pre-Christian origin, invading the West, from
the Orient as a competitor of Christianity.” Kennedy has described it
as “Orientalism in a Hellenic mask” and to a careful student the close
similarity amongst the teachings of the Upanishads and early Buddhism
and Gnostic theories is obvious.

Although Gnosticism began as a synthetic phenomenon, it soon
assumed a distinctive and integrated personality of its own. It had a
definite attitude toward life and a clear interpretation of human existence.
The various Gnostic sects differed in detail and emphasis, but in basic
beliefs they shared a similar philosophy. They all believed that the
world was bad, being controlled by evil or ignorance, and could not be
redeemed. But the divine spark imprisoned in men could attain salvation
by divine grace. A cardinal feature of Gnostic thought is the dualism
of God and world, of man and world, and of man within himself. The
Gnostic God is transcendent and alien in nature to the universe, which
He neither created nor governs. There are two worlds, the spiritual
(good and light) and the material (evil and dark). The highest goal of
the soul, or, in the language of Gnosticism, man’s true inner self which
originated in the world of light, is to shake off its imprisonment in the
a as D fallen and alien life on earth, and find its way back to
E i ght ascending through lower worlds and the spheres of
ee A a of archons (rulers). The soul is a part or spark of the
ace ee. y Man, who existed before the world began. Ignorance

ari oo oe Erisin, hence the need for divine revelation.
ae 3, z om a in the body, is assisted in its efforts for freedom
oan ae a eity, who in his pity for the captive sparks of light

nae ae a the heavenly figure of light, to redeem them. In
nosticism S is gavo figure is identified with CNS Hence,
an affinity oe oe ee religion based on dualism, which gave it
the leader ce en Whilst the idea of the demiurge (artificer),
to the Hindu aoe ons, who created ihe world and rules it, is related
of Isvara, no distinction is recognized in Gnosticism

131

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

between the creator of the world and the Supreme Deity, although in |

Indian thought it is. The Indian emphasis on dualism may h
inspired by Persia.

Even though some of the gnostic ideas found a place in Christian
thought, Christianity gradually came to look upon it as a heretical
perversion and bitterly resisted its ideas. W. R. Inge has called the
Gnostics representatives of “barbarised Platonism.”!2 Yet, it was
Gnosticism which in the initial stages gave an enormous impetus to
many of the sacramental and mystical ideas in Christianity. The Christian
emphasis on salvation in religion and the consolidation of its Church are
the result of Gnostic influences. Gnosticism had, in fact, an even wider
impact on the religious and philosophical literature of the Hellenistic

period. It is found in the Jewish philosopher Philo and in Neoplatonism,
despite Plotinus’ polemic against it.

ave been

ahman sleeps in the stone.”
ts believed in pre-existence and the
nostic teacher Basilides, who taught

The only way to escape reincarnation
of peace. ‘Through Karma action $° a
the guilt of evil deeds done in another
2 transmigration of the soul, and his

132

was to rise to a superior sphere
came to the world tainted with
existence. He firmly believed in

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

pessimism and theory of personality have strong Buddhist affinities. The
redemption through the ascent of the self, a kind of rebirth; belief in the
unity of the human race, for all men are fundamentally endowed with
divine spark; and the belief in ascetic practices to purify and strengthen
the self bring to mind Indian thought. He described God as devoid of
all attributes—like the Hindu concept of the Mirguna God.

Basilides was an Egyptian who embraced Christianity. Before his
conversion he had followed the doctrines of the Eastern gnosis. Judging
by the account left by his contemporary Clemens, Basilides appears to
have never been a Christian—Tertullian calls him a Platonist—but
rather to have joined the new notions of Buddhism, which is regarded
by King as the true source of many of the primary Gnostic ideas, to the
esoteric doctrines of the Egyptian priesthood. Indeed, “the introduction
of Buddhism into Egypt and Palestine affords the only true solution of
innumerable difficulties in the history of religion.”!”

The Gnostic doctrine of the plurality of heavens is essentially Indian;
its “three qualities” resemble the “three gunas” of the Samkhya system.
‘The resemblances between Gnostic doctrines and Mahayana Buddhism
are well known, particularly between the Pis tis Sophia and the Saddharma
Pundarika. The Pistis Sophia refers to the methods by which ecstatic
experiences are obtained, and it is indicated that salvation can be
achieved by a knowledge of the mysteries and by renouncing the world.
s i siul to have been derived from the philosophical formulations of

entinus—probably the most famous of all the Gnostics whose activity
may be dated from about 130 to 150. In his “System of Emanations” all
ew from the First Calise in pairs, male and female—a feature which
$ ow stamps his scheme as borrowed from Indian theosophy,
exacth eee principle is divided into a male and female energy, each

Ei h £ the other, “the same distinguished by their sex alone. =
intro EAT in his Life of Manes details the circumstances which
(215-276) o arie beaa into Gnostic teaching. Manes or Mani
and later fe e a beginning his Gnostic mission, had been the slave

as Sole heir to a wealthy widow, who had herself inherited all
Tebinthes = at a certain Terbinthus, surnamed in Assyrian, Budda.
Ñ ae = n his turn, had been the servant of a wealthy merchant

» Who had a knowledge of Indian religions through his frequent

133

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

trade-trips to India. Later he began to preach new doctrines and there can |

be little doubt that these were not original but had been learned in India,
His tradition was carried on by his slave and sole disciple, Terbinthus,
and finally manifested itself in the mission of Manes.”

Bardesanes (Bardiasan, 155-233), the highly esteemed Gnostic
teacher whose treatise on Indian Gymosophists is frequently quoted by
later writers, such as Porphyry, evidently had learned much about India

from an Indian embassy to Syria (218-222). He describes in accurate |

detail life in a Buddhist monastery, a visit to a cave temple in India, and
the discipline and mode of life of the Brahmans and Buddhists.
Radhakrishnan takes the discussion of Indian influence on Gnosticism
further. He finds the Gnostic dualism ambiguous and illustrates a number
of parallels between Gnosticism and the Upanishads. According to his
reading of Gnostic teaching, the perfect Gnostic is the man who is free
from the world and master of himself and who having broken off from
the outward symbols of religion, has realized the truth. Furthermore, hè
agrees with Bousset that the basic Gnostic tenets were well developed
before Christianity. Gnosticism was not the child of Christianity but
in fact a parent of its philosophy. It was a serious attempt to identify
Christianity as a religion with Eastern speculations on the origin and
end of things. This correlation of religion and philosophy is typically
characteristic of Hindu thought. During the first century the Gnostic
supplied Christianity with the philosophy it was seeking. “Gnosticism's
by no means a mere attempt to reject the Old Testament and hellenize
the Gospels. What it did was to introduce into Christianity not the pu
spirit of Greek Philosophy but conceptions of Eastern religions which

He century had taken their place everywhere in the Roman

The Hermetic tradition of

i Egypt, which flourished during the Be

ee centuries, is somewhat Gnostic in character and a most inter esting
variety of Hellenistic mysticism. It is considered to be “the developm™
of religious thought in Egypt under Persian and Indian influence whic
formed a basis of later Jewish and Greek developments.” Although”
originated in Egypt, the authors of this movement were Egyptian Greeks:
The Hermetic texts, intended to guide men to mystical experienc®, :
not contain any suggestions of ceremonies, sacraments, or of a hierar Y

134

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

Nor does God need gifts, except those of praise and adoration, for He
is all things that exist. For the Hermetics God is ineffable—and He is
the Supreme Reality transcending all pre-eminence and excelling all

aise. He is the Creator and Father of the Cosmos, which is in His
image. Man is of a divine nature, and he who knows himself passes into
God. The Hermetic mystic sees unity in all things, and the purgation
and illumination of the soul brings him the consciousness of a universal
fellowship. The Hermetics were possibly an esoteric brotherhood,
consisting of small groups with a teacher who, like a Hindu guru, guided
them in their quest for truth.

Gnosticism found new life in the third century in the rise of the
Manichaean religion in Sassanian Persia. Its founder, Mani, a native
of Ecbatana, had travelled to India and aimed to establish a universal
religion which was a fusion of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and the
Gnostic doctrines. Many Manichaean books have been discovered
in Central Asia, but in most other places the followers of Mani were
persecuted and their books destroyed. A Manichaean treatise, found at
Tun-huang in China, is in the form of a Buddhist sutra. It speaks of
Mani as the Tathagata, a synonym for the Buddha, and refers to the
Buddhas of Transformation (Hua-fo) and the Boddhisattva Ti-tsang.
A confessional formula, Khuastuanift, found in the same area, is akin to
ite Buddhist Patimokkha. It advocated asceticism, metempsychosis, and
celibacy, and emphasized the contrast between the principles of light
ae Until Recon Manis teaching was regarded as clearly
ae ae ae metaphysical sense; it is now accepted thag his outlook
Pa ee ia J the same as that of the Gnostics. During the fourth

RE ae eee spread widely both in the East and the West.
Ta <3 : e the worship of images and animal sacrifices, it incurred
strugele agai t S Romansenneiss It also entered into a prolonged
ons Me hristianity throughout the fourth century. Augustine

R aean for nine years from 373-382.
a ees one of the most powerful movements affecting
the ae K $ and thought, and, although it had passed its peak by
the decline of s the third century; it continued to be influential ral
ofits Power, it = Roman Empire in the fifth century. At the height

> it influenced two of the chief exponents of Alexandrian

135

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Christianity, Clement and Origen. Clement was deeply influenced by |

Basilides and thus by Buddhist thought. A person of great learning, he

worked to achieve a consistent theology. He wrote his Stromata Nearly |

m

sixty years after the death of Basilides, and used Greek philosophy |

interpret the Christian tradition liberally—not merely as a missionary |

expedient but in order to weave it into the texture of Christian theology,
He refers to the universality of suffering; pain and fear are as inherent
in human nature as rust in iron, and, quoting Basilides on rebirth, he
suggests that every human act is fruitful and that if its consequence is
not apparent in this life, it will be in a future one."! It was however, in

his brilliant successor, Origen—born about 185 and the first important |
theologian to appear after Paul and John—that the Church had someone |
who could firmly blend the two streams of Greek thought and Christian _
tradition. A pupil of the founder of Neoplatonism, Ammonius Saccas, |
Origen’s Supreme Being is the Neoplatonic One. He spoke of Christas
God-Man. The Father is the origin of all being and is purely spiritual, |

whilst the Son of Logos, begotten by the Father, is essentially God,

though subordinate to Him. The doctrine of the incarnation of the |

Logos gave the Christian faith a medium for interpreting itself to Greek-
thinking people. Origen admits pre-existence and the future rebirth 0!

souls. For him Christ, who possessed a soul like any other, was more |
a teacher than a redeemer. He advocated prayer in the name of Jess |

but refused to address it to Him. He distinguished between a myst]
religion for the educated and a mythical one for others and justified
this by the examples of “the Persians and the India.” Origen preache

asceticism and taught that at the end of the present world dispensation
eet TSE would follow reversing the cycle of destruction and restoration
His thought sometimes reveals striking parallels with that of his great
contemporary, Plotinus, perhaps due to their common master Ammonius
Saccas. Origen’s chief doctrines were given up by the Christian Chute

but the tradition of Clement and On thre

c : : gen was continued by the se
appadocians, Basil of Caesarca, and the two Gregories.
Meanwhile,

there emerged a somewhat alien movement
Neoplatonism, which marked the last phase of Hellenistic though F
which, following tradition, was a distinctive blend of old ideas, esPe™
Platonic, and new ideas drawn from various schools. It develop?

136

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

essentially in an age of transition.” After a long period of preparation
Neoplatonism reached its culmination in the work of Plotinus (205-ca.
770), one of the greatest thinkers of the ancient world.™ The teachings
of Plotinus and his school in Rome set forth doctrines which were
essentially Hellenistic and syncretic. In its later forms, characterized by
the Syrian school led by Jamblichus and the Athenian school of Proclus,
it was transformed into a well-developed scholasticism of dynamic poly
theism—a designation often given to Indian theology, which regards
God in Himself as Nirguna and yet the source of all power behind the
universe. Neoplatonism then underwent a further change, passing into a
theurgical mystery cult. It is, however, its first phase which is of greater
historical importance. In any case it continued to be the dominant
philosophy of the ancient world within which the Christian culture in
both its forms, Byzantine and Western, was taking shape. Many of the
eminent Christian thinkers of this period, which has been designated as
the most formative period of Christian theology, were greatly influenced
by Neoplatonic thought.

The relationship between Neoplatonism and Christianity was
somewhat precarious and fluctuating in the beginning. A period
of compatability was followed by antagonism, but finally various
Neoplatonic principles were absorbed by Christian thinkers.

In his own writings Plotinus tells us little about himself so that
“ny personal information comes from the biography his disciple and
Cae: wrote as an introduction to the Enmeads. It is curious
P whose ideas and teaching have deeply influenced oe
Mares a of the world, did little to perpetuate his thought.

gs S sypt, probably of Locopolis in Upper Egypt, the modern
ct ies his formative years at Alexandria. Having studied under

se Hey there, he became a disciple of the Platonic teacher
came to ae (175-242) who had abandoned Christianity. Plotinus
Seven and at y at Alexandria at the somewhat advanced age of twenty-
ad other ended Saccas’ lectures for ten years. Besides Plotinus, Saccas
of thirty- ues including Erennius and Origen." In 243 at the age
in the ne ae otinus was greatly attracted by Eastern thought, and,
*ecompanied arning Indian and Persian philosophy at first hand, he
ted the military expedition of Emperor Gordian against the

137

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

King of Persia. The expedition, however, ended in the assassination

of the Emperor, and Plotinus, having escaped with some difficulty to |

Antioch, returned to Rome in 244, where he lived and taught for the
rest of his life. It is not known if he succeeded in contacting any Indian
philosophers on his somewhat abortive trip.

Plotinus believed that there is a transcendent First Principle behind
everything, which he calls the One or the Good, and which is beyond
the reach of human thought or language. It is a positive and dynamic
reality and is the source of all defined and limited realities. From the
One proceeds, by a timeless generation, the first of the derived realities,
named by Plotinus Nows, which is the Divine Mind and also the world
of forms and ideas. From Nous proceeds soul which is universal and

is the intermediary between the “intelligible” world of Nous and the |
phenomenal world of sense. The individual souls are like parts of the |

Universal Soul. The highest ideal of the good and wise man, and the

supreme goal of human endeavour, is contemplation of and gradual |

union with the Good, the Absolute.

Plotinus intellectualized religion. He saw the world indivisible as
realm of-values, highest of which was the Deity of Logos. He proceeded
from the idea of God and concluded with the demand for union with
God—God is the ultimate source and the final goal of all being. Heis
without limit, form, or definition. “The One is the One and nothing els
and even to assert that it ‘is’ or that it is ‘one’ is false, since it is beyon
being or essence. No ‘name,’ can apply to it; it eludes all definition
all knowledge, it can neither be perceived nor thought. It is not”
movement, nor is it at rest. It is infinite, without limits, and since it hs
no parts, it is without structure and without form.”!9” Everything flows
from God, but what is derived is an image and reflection of the origin!
essence. The first emanation of the Being is Nous, thought, which!
at the same time the highest Being; Nous engenders soul, which i$ ut
creator of the universe in time and space. There is thus an eternal proces
of emanation and continuous interpenetration of being. The universe ®
the soul, soul is contained in Nous, Nous is contained in the One ™
the One contains all.

ogous conception of the One has undeniable affinity wit ue
Hindu doctrine of Spirit, “the seed of all seeds,” and his conceptio? 0

138

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

soul corresponds with the Hindu teaching of the Atman. His idea of God
as the One, “the good, the pure thought, the pure actuality,” reminds one
of Sachchidananda of the Upanishads. The absorption of the individual
soul into the world-soul as described by Plotinus shows Indian influence:
“Souls which are pure and have lost their attraction to the Corporeal
will cease to be dependent on the body. So detached they will pass into
the world of Being and Reality.” Plotinus’ theory of distinction between
emanation and creation is similar to that of Advaita Vedanta between
Vivarta, or appearance, and parinama, or modification. *

The Neoplatonist strives to free his soul from his body through
modification and to attain union with the Supreme, in the same way
as the Yoga doctrine of Patanjali. Whilst Pythagoras taught rebirth
(remembrance) and abstention from the flesh, he said nothing about the
end—moksha, or liberation—which the Neoplatonist sought and which
is the cardinal Hindu doctrine.

Plotinus believed in rebirth, transmigration of soul, and the law
of karma, Until highest wisdom is attained and the individual soul is
absorbed in the Universal Soul, successive births occur which are like
one dream after another. A man’s destiny is conditioned by his search
for truth, beauty, and goodness, and failure involves reversion to a lower
life-form—which is an Indian doctrine.” Plotinus, somewhat like the
Upanishads which placed more stress on jnana than on arma, regarded
action as a feeble result of contemplation. He taught that nothing
Possessing real value can perish. In India this “knowledge of God” is
a as “Brahma-Vidya,” which claims an insight into the divine
higher eae to science, and holds that through the development of
ayes an individual can obtain divine revelation. Nous is both
SS By and universal, like Atman and Paramatman. The true way of

lone ee is the way which leads the soul to itself in its unity with
activity of to the One. The soul must be inwardly detached from the
eee € senses and the bondage of matter. Matter is evil, although
nA us did not approve the Stoic practice of gaining freedom from

è ra A He sums up his doctrine of mystical purification in
detachment f, us away everything.” Renunciation of this world and
Not imply bee all activity for the sake of a better world, however, did

emnation of this world. This detachment from external

139

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

being is reminiscent of Hindu teaching in which the soul must be freed |
from the subjection of the body to attain union with the Supreme through j
meditation. Like the Upanishads, Plotinus also said that since the One is
“within, at the innermost depth” we must turn our gaze within, ignoring
the external world, to seek the divine vision or the Supreme Light. The |
term “vision” is in itself insufficient, since it implies the duality of seen |
and seer, which does not exist. The light by which we see the One is the
radiance of the One. The vision of the One or the attainment of direct |
contact with reality is the transformation of our being, reaching our goal, |
and is to become divine ourselves. Self-realization through wisdom, |
jnana, and meditation is an old teaching of the Upanishads." Plotinus |
practiced meditation and concentration intensely. “Four times while |
Porphyry was staying with him, the wise heirophant ‘went beyond the |
choir of virtues as a man leaves behind him the statues of the godsto |
enter the sanctuary’ and reached ecstasy or communion and identification |
with the Infinite.”"' Although his philosophy is highly religious, he was |
indifferent to public worship. To find God, Plotinus had no need to |
enter a temple or bow before an image. Our destiny is entirely in the life
within us; the soul has only to turn again towards the lost communion:
Prayer is the silent yearning of the soul for affinity with the Supreme
One. Plotinus refused to regard the soul as a prisoner in a satanic jail
with no hope of salvation except by the supernatural intervention ofi
redeemer. For him the soul could force itself to rise to ecstatic union with
the One. Mainly interested in contemplative and spiritual life Plotinus |
devoted little attention to the questions of social morality and wrote "° |
treatise on ethics. |

Plotinus himself led a simple life, disregarding the body and practicing
vegetarianism. The abstention from sacrifices and animal food o!
Neoplatonism is, of course, in agreement with Buddhism. Act’ y

Buddhism appears to have been so popular at Alexandria that Clement

of Alexandria (150-218) declared that “the Greeks stole their philosop!?
from the barbarians.” i

Indeed, he mention
Buddha by name.” was the first Greek to

Christian scholars, such as F. C. Burkitt.and W. W. Inge, althous"
admitting Plotinus’ interest in Indian thought and even his journey i
the East in quest of further knowledge, insist that there are 2° grace

140

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

of Indian influence in his work, and that Neoplatonism is a true child
of Hellenism.” In sharp contrast to these views there are a number of
scholars, including some pro-Hellenes, who accept the theory of Eastern
influence. Considering that Plotinus had studied in Alexandria where
Eastern religious thought was prevalent, and that his journey to the
East, at some risk to himself, would not have been undertaken unless
he had not only a keen interest in the East but had actually acquired a
competent knowledge of Indian thought, it seems likely that Plotinus was
influenced by Indian ideas. He was, it is true, not primarily interpreting
Indian philosophy, but rather clarifying and elaborating Plato’s teaching
with his knowledge of Greek tradition and Indian concepts. Numenius,
whose influence on Plotinus was considerable, had himself sought
confirmation of the fusion of the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato in the
religions of India, Persia, and Egypt." Some classical authorities, such
as Zeller, who maintain the independence of Greek thought would not
consider Neoplatonism to be a part of the Greek philosophical tradition
because it is contaminated by Eastern features. Similarly, Bacherot and
Brehier are also convinced of Indian influence on Neoplatonism. Indeed,
most scholars, including those who reject the theory of indebtedness to
India, such as Keith, readily admit Indian influence on Neoplatonism.'*
One may conclude then that Neoplatonism was certainly influenced
by Indian philosophy, although it is not always possible to distinguish
what was taken from Pythagoreanism or Buddhism. It would be wrong
eee the erovemede or its character was predominantly Indian,
= ye s lactens iore is Crm. It does draw heavily
caine A ood, Aristotle's Spirit,” Stoicism, and Philo but the
elia etween Neoplatonism and the Vedants and Yoga systems

obvious.
ee had many points of agreement with Gnosticism. For
that the ei ee that the Supreme Being is beyond existence, and
original home > a divine spark but has lost igs way and must return to its
hol heer - et, he criticizes the Gnostic doctrine of total depravity,
is completel co always mixed with some good and no human being
Of the aan ac: He also disputed the Gnostic view of the creation
have ‘ibe oe time. Some of his disagreement with the Gnostics may

om the fact that whilst Gnostics looked upon themselves

141

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

as Christians, Plotinus did not consider himself as such.
Plotinus’ pupils were not of the same intellectual stature as their
master. Malchus, a Phoenician better known by the Greek form of

his name Porphyry (232-304), was a man of great learning but not of |
striking originality. Other Neoplatonists who commanded respect were |

Tamblichus and Proclus.

Prophyry collected, arranged, and edited the writings of Plotinus
in the famous work entitled The Enneads. Porphyry, before he became
a pupil of Plotinus, had written a treatise, Philosophy from the Oracles,
showing his deep interest in Eastern religious thought. Differing from
his teacher, Porphyry advocated image worship and strict asceticism,
For him, the source of evil was not so much in the body as in the desires

of the soul. Porphyry is famous for his work Against the Christians in |

which he criticized Christian doctrines, and although he was filled with
the lofty philosophy of Plotinus, “the need of revelation, redemption,
asceticism and immortality inspires him with a faith like that of his
opponents.”

Porphyry’s pupil Iamblichus more than anyone else was responsible
for the conversion of Neoplatonism into a theurgic spiritualism, as found
in the schools of Athens and Pergamum. By the beginning of the fifth
century the academy founded by Plato had become Neoplatonist and it
was here that Neoplatonism reigned for two centuries under the Christian
Empire. It was also taught at Alexandria by Hypatia. Proclus (416-435)
was not a creative thinker but a systematizer who “carried to its utmost
limits the ideal of the one comprehensive philosophy that should embrace
all the garnered wisdom of the ancient world.” In an ordered exposition
of the system, Proclus methodically defended Neoplatonism and gave it
a somewhat devotional orientation. His influence upon early mediaeval
thought was considerable, although somewhat accidental. The school at
Athens was closed by Justinian in 529, and the murder of Hypatia put
an end to the Alexandrian school. But by this time Christian theolog!
had accepted and absorbed the Spirit of Neoplatonism, which became
a potent factor in the growth of Christian mysticism. It was a striking

end for a movement which had been opposed by Christianity, and whos?

works had been condemned to be burned by a decree of the Council o!
Ephesus in 431 and later in 448 by a law of Theodosius II.

142

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

St, Augustine, who was born in 353 in Thagaste in modern Algeria,
was successively a pagan, a Manichaean, and a Neoplatonist before his
conversion to Christianity. He was violent tempered and his sexual
morality was loose. Later, tormented by conscience, he developed a
remarkable degree of intuitional insight into the processes of his own
mind. It was through his reading of Plotinus that he came to Christianity
and he naturally tried to introduce the central principles of Neoplatonism
into Christianity. Augustine admits his great indebtedness to the works
of Plotinus and Porphyry in his Confessions. So deep was the influence
of Neoplatonism on Augustine’s spiritual evolution that he has been
described as a “Christian Plotinus,” and it was mainly through his
writings that the tenets of Plotinus were transmitted to the Middle Ages
in the West.

Augustine’s mysticism was intellectual, and his vision of God was on
a far higher level than that of the mystics who followed him. His views
on God and matter, freedom and evil, and the relation of God with the
world were adopted from Neoplatonism. It was he who conceived the
idea of a universal church. Where Neoplatonism and the Christian faith
came into conflict, Augustine subordinated the latter to the former. In
his peculiar fusion of the two different doctrines, Neoplatonic mysticism
had precedence. For the goal of all prayer was the return to the infinite
One, the essential unity with the highest good."

Neoplatonic ideas also came into Christian theological tradition
through that most successful of pseudonymous writers, “Dionysius the
Areopagite” (ca. 500), who expounded Christian mystical theology in
che eee and whose writing had an exceptionally great influence
i a and Asia.49 Dionysius the miso paar vsa Syrian and
aA 5 y the founder of Christian matica. He claimed to es
ai x union and preached quietism as a preparation; to spea
silently s aad understand without knowledge: seck e.

‘yond pee ee that perfect and pane union with t e
aR ee ionysius system is described by Inge as the ancient religion

ins masquerading in the clothes of Gnostics, Manichaeans,

a :
Oplatonists and others.”150

n on perhaps this influence of a diluted and diffused Neoplatonism
is

tian theology which was the most historically important part

143

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of the Neoplatonic contribution to European thought and culture,
Indeed, Neoplatonic influence can be detected in many places, not only
in theology, in metaphysics, in logic, and in moral philosophy but also
in the early history of European science and mediaeval and Renaissance
art. From the twelfth century on it was reinforced in the West by
the mediaeval Latin translations of Proclus and of the great Arabic
philosophers who owed much to Neoplatonism. In the sixteenth century
the Greek texts of the Neoplatonist philosophers themselves became
available in the West again. Even in modern times, despite criticism,
its influence has been significant, and without an understanding of
Neoplatonic thought it is not possible to properly appreciate European
culture.

However, Christianity, despite frequent doctrinal menaces from other
contemporary syncretistic philosophies, continued to spread throughout
the Roman Empire, weaving an increasing number of converts into a new
communty of ideas and religious order. The attitudes of the rulers varied
between uncompromising hostility and toleration. The Roman emperors
were generally intolerant to religions, including Christianity which
they regarded as a Jewish sect. The Christians refused to pay homage
to the Emperor’s image and challenged the divinity of Caesar, thus
incurring charges of treason. At the end of the third and the beginning
of the fourth centuries, Christianity clashed openly with the Roman
Empire. After years of persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, the
associated Emperor Galerius issued an edict of toleration in 317. In
324, Constantine, who was well disposed toward Christianity and who
had been an associated emperor, became the sole ruler of the Roman
Empire. He embraced Christianity on his death bed in 337, having
earlier abandoned all pretentions to divinity and having put Christian
monograms on the army banners and shields. Thus, Christianity becam?
the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Whilst Christianity as a united front was engaged in its struggle
ee the Roman Empire, it also was engaged in violent inte!
disputes, many of which were about the divinity of Jesus. Ignoring £

teachings of charity, service, and brotherhood, the Christians became
involved in torturous, agitated, and elusive argument, calling each 0t S
heretics and persecuting, excommunicating, and executing each othe!

144

THE AGE OF SYNCRETISM

The chief disputants were the Arians, who taught that Christ was less than
God; the Sabellians, who taught that he was a mode or aspect of God;
and the Trinitarians, who taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost were three distinct persons, but one God. Spite, dogmatism, and
rivalry over theological refinements threatened to destroy Christianity.
It was at the Council of Nicaea, convened by Constantine in 323, that
the view of the Trinitarians was upheld. Christ, the Son, was declared
to be consubstantial with God the Father and coeternal."! Although
these controversies and persecutions against the spirit of Jesus produced
asuccession of unhappy and cruel disputes which injured Christianity as
awhole in the fourth and fifth centuries, they also generated a zeal, often
base and malicious, amongst Christians to propagate their faith.

145

Chapter IV

PAX ARABICA,
THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

FOLLOWING THE DEATH of Marcus Aurelius in 180, the Roman Empire
began to decay because of corruption and indiscipline, and declined in
power because of internal strife and mounting outside pressure. Toward
the end of the third century the Empire nearly disintegrated under
attacks from Germans and Persians. But it was saved and reformed into
a new empire by Diocletian (284-305), and later reorganized and further
restored by Constantine (288-337). The efforts of these two Emperors,
however, only succeeded in prolonging the process of dislocation.
Whether the rise of Christianity with its train of bitter religious conflicts
and persecutions was a Contributing cause of the Roman decline or not
the two certainly coincided. During the following hundred years, Roman
authority gradually weakened, Roman armies suffered defeats, and Rome
was sacked. By the end of the fifth century there was nothing left ts
the Roman Empire in the West, Europe lapsed into the Dark Ages fo!
centuries. Total and devoted acceptance of the authority of the new faith
as interpreted by its priests or guardians on earth, inculcated among
the people an attitude of surrender and they handed over the right 4”
responsibility of thinking to others. Passive submissions suppress?
scientific inquiry and academic integrity, the main characteristics °
the preceding age of Alexandrian syncretism. Intellectual stagnatio®

religious intolerance, and racial and regional exclusiveness characte!”
Europe for the next thousand years.

146

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

Meanwhile, Constantine had founded Constantinople (Nova Roma),
present-day Istanbul, in 330 as the capital of the eastern branch of the
Roman Empire. Later, when the West fell, the eastern branch, as the
Byzantine Empire, maintained the Graeco-Roman tradition against and
alongside the rising power of Islam until it collapsed before the Ottoman
Turks in 1453.
Whilst the Roman Empire was declining, in India the Gupta Empire,
noted for its exceptional cultural advancement and dissemination, had
emerged early in the fourth century. Not since the days of the Mauryas
had India been united under one political power. By the end of the fifth
century, however, Gupta power had declined. It was revived somewhat
in the seventh to the tenth centuries under Harsha the Palas and the
Gurjara-Pratiharas but the forces of decline had set in and the great ancient
period came to an end. In India, too, thought lacked creativity and social
institutions had lost their vigour and freshness. Except for an occasional
spark, intellectual curiosity had given way to religious superstitions.
During the seventh century (when Harsha Siladitya was in power In
India, the West had retired into seclusion, the great Persian and Byzantine
powers had exhausted each other in a series of wars and China had begun
to re-emerge into greatness under the T’angs) there arose in Arabia a
unique combination of the forces of a new religion and a new political
power. The Islamic religion and Arab power changed the course of history
decisively and created one of the world’s most brilliant civilizations. The
Power of faith gave the Arabs, a Semitic people separated from their
main stock, national consciousness and a vast empire, and it gave the
me a ee and a culture. It is a unique historical episode that the
a high a eee and travellers, lived in a desert country and n
nee a o civilization, shor have been so suddenly transforme
ae ne coe great heights in cultural and political pees
Middle fe TO oe state, and culture—Islam dominated the
oe ae = continues to be one of the most significant m >

Rese ty. ene the period of Arab hegemony Islam assim z
than did th S e of different nationalities or races more ences ,

in them e oS the Romans, or the Anglo-Saxons, and inspire
eteis noth: ng feeling of brotherhood and a measure of harmony.
ng comparable until the nineteenth-century expansion of

147

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Christianity, and that too is said to have been much less Successful in
inculcating a sense of brotherhood. Despite their frequent cruelty and
ruthlessness, civilization is deeply indebted to the mediaeval Arabs fo;
the development, preservation, and dissemination of both the Westem
and Eastern cultural heritages. They founded universities at Baghdad,
Cairo, and Cordova, and for several centuries made more contributions
in science and philosophy than any of their contemporaries.

Although most Muslims today are neither Arab nor speak Arabic,
their culture is the product of Arab inspiration and enterprise. The Arabs
at the peak of their power and creative effort, in Damascus and Baghdad,
in Toledo and Cordova, either by original contributions or by what they
learned and transmitted from ancient Greece, Persia, and India, played
a vital role in human progress.

Information on pre-Islamic Arabia is scanty, but in the seventh
century, Mecca, like Petra and Palmyra before it, had come to be known
as a financial and commercial centre in the Arab world.! Mecca’s rise as
a mercantile city may be due to the conflict between the Persian Empire
and Byzantium, because the wars between them resulted in the closing
of the more northern trade routes between East and West. Indeed, the
dismembering of the Greek Empire after the death of Alexander had
led to the growing importance of Arabian routes in international trade.
During the Hellenistic period the monarchs of both Syria and Egypt had
attempted to monopolize these trade routes, but neither Alexander no!
his successors could conquer Arabia, However, in spite of its increasing
mo poraneE in trade, Mecca still remained politically and socially vey
much a city organized to conform to a nomadic way of life. There w3
practically no centrally organized and uniform system of government
and the city was ruled by a group of clans. Lawlessness and violence we
common and moral life was lax, centring around dancing girls, slaven
and harems.

; The religion of the pre-Islamic Arabs was inarticulate and polytheisti
Ridden with superstition, they worshipped a multiplicity of deities a"
sacred stones, and gave little thought to the question of a life after death.
A legion of jinn (genii), good or evil, were subordinate to a rich pantheo?
of deities. The centre of stone worship was the temple of Mecca know?
as the Kaaba, which attracted pilgrims from all over Arabia. There w€

148

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

a number of idols in the temple, representing various gods, one of whom
was called Allah (AI Ilah). Allah was probably the tribal god of the
Quraish, amongst whom Muhammad was born. Muhammad preached
that Allah was the only God. He transformed the existing emblems
into Islamic objects. He purged the Kaaba of its images and, having
first prescribed prayer towards Jerusalem, later altered the direction
toward the Kaaba. Thus, the relentlessly iconoclastic Muslims revere as
immeasurably holy a temple which was once a flourishing seat of idol
worship. A significant feature of Arabic life around the year 600 was a
number of wandering hermits and ascetics with a monotheistic tendency
and a craving for solitude.

Considering that from the earliest times the Arabs had always been
enterprising in international trade and commerce, and that Arabia was
so close to the spheres of earlier civilizations and of later religions,
Christianity and Judaism, it is indeed a puzzle that it should have
remained almost unaffected by any of them. Islam, like Christianity, is
based on God having revealed himself, although the means and nature of
that revelation differ in the two religions. However, Islamic theology is
simple. The term Islam in its Arabic form means surrender, a submission
to the will of God, and, in its Hebrew origin, it means peace. Founded
by Muhammad (ca. 570-8 June 632), who combined religious genius
with political finesse, the Islamic religion is detailed in the Quran; the
word “Quran” literally means a discourse. The Muslim holy book, like
the Jewish-Christian Bible, is a compilation and the orthodox followers
assert that every word in it was inspired by Allah.’ It is, however, unlike
the Bible, principally the word of one person. At different times over a
Period of about twenty-two years, Muhammad dictated his revelation
in fragments of unequal length which were written down by scribes on
eae or palm leaves and stored without any consideration
tie a es By orders the Caliph Abu Bakr in 633, after the death
eae P a the remaining fragments were collected and arranged
e ength—with the longest first and the shortest last—in
out by Pee d of logical or chronological order. ie task was carried

dh ae be Thabit, who had been Muhammad's secretary. From
a pene several versions of the text gained currency and, as
© vowels in the script of the time, people read and interpreted

149

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the text differently. In 651, therefore, Caliph Othman appointed q
commission of three Quraish scholars to scrutinize and standardize the
work. The revised version was widely circulated and since then the text,
consisting of 114 chapters or suras, has been preserved with exceptional
purity.’ Muslims hold the Quran as the word of God and inimitable in
style, and it has thus exercised a unique influence on the Arabic language
and literature. ‘The need to keep the holy book uncorrupted, unfold its
deeper meaning, and elucidate its obscurities caused Muslims to devise
a science of grammar and lexicography, and to compile and interpret the
pre-Islamic literature verses, and traditions.

Muhammad's central message is uncompromising monotheism and
the perdition of idolaters. He preached the existence, the unity, and the
perfection of Allah—of whom Moses, Jesus, and others were the earlier
prophets, and Muhammad the last. He taught kindness, honesty, and
Islamic brotherhood. He respected both the Law (Torah) and the Gospel
as true revelations, the word of God to Jews and Christians. He did not
claim any divinity for himself, or perform any miracles—other than
transmitting the revelation of the Quran. He sought nothing beyond
the acknowledgment that he was Allan’s apostle. It is not, however,
enough for a Muslim to believe in the message given by Muhammad
but also in Muhammad as the Seal of the Prophets: “Lailaha illa-I-lah,
Muhammadun rasulu-I-lah, "(I testify that there is no god but God, Allah
and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God.) Allah is the source of
creation and knowledge and the object of worship, and to believe in
his messenger requires a perfect belief in the angels, the scriptures, the
messengers, the day of resurrection, and the principles on which ne
code of laws is based. :

In style the Quran follows the model of the Hebrew prophets
and is largely an adaptation of Judaic doctrines, tales, and themes. Its
monotheism, prophecy, faith, repentance, the last judgement, heave?
and hell, appear to be Jewish in form and origin. It departed from

Judaism mainly in asserting that the Messiah had come. The separatio”
of the divine and the human is emphasized in the Quran even mot?
than in Judaism. Quranic teaching is less indebted to Christianity tha”
to Judaism, although its earnest preaching of repentance in fear of the
coming judgement perhaps has a Christian ring. The Quran, howeveh has

150

aa \

pAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

creat reverence for other Prophets, including Jesus, whom it calls “Son of
May Messiah, Prophet, Word, and acknowledges his miracles. But it
does not call Jesus the Son of God, denies the Trinity, and deplores the
divisions within Christianity. Although the teachings of Islam are rooted
in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, they are shaped into a distinctive
doctrine by the original thinking of Muhammad and by the assumptions
and preconceptions natural to Arabs.

In 610 Muhammad began to preach publicly the divine knowledge
he had received. Whilst he secured some converts, the majority of the
Meccans adopted a hostile attitude. Consequently, in 622 Muhammad
was forced to migrate with a small band of followers to Medina (Yathrib)
over two hundred miles north. In Medina he found greater support and,
through his sagacity, statesmanship, and military genius, he soon built
up his prestige and power, both temporal and spiritual. From then on
his cause prospered. Within ten years he became the undisputed ruler
of Medina, Mecca, and the neighbouring areas. Many other tribes
throughout Arabia also acknowledged his suzerainty and subscribed to
the new faith.

The system of political organization which Muhammad devised,
Weaving the nomadic tribes into a new community which demanded
surrender of personal independence and of ancestral tradition, was alien
to the Arabs. Yet, with remarkable ingenuity he succeeded in subduing
tribal rivalries and prejudices. Thus, the emergence of Islam as a state
or political entity began with Muhammad’s military conquests and
Pacification of the hitherto unruly Arabs, mostly Bedouins. After his
death both Islamic religion and polity developed and flourished under
the Caliphate,
ee appointed no successor and after some conflict and rivalry
aidan , a faithful friend of the Prophet, was elected the first Caliph

alifa of Islam; Khalifa literally means “deputy” or “representative.”
me dissensions and underlying disunion, which gave birth to
Beare schisms in the body politic of Islam, the new regime was
ee ey successful. The Arabs were now firmly welded together
is Bre ce community, Umma, under the command of “Allah and
orp: eet emal soon they were joined by countless people of non-Arab

Sin in Islamic brotherhood.

151

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

At the beginning of the seventh century western Asia was divided
between the two rival powers of Byzantium and Persia. The former
was Greek in culture, Christian in religion, and mainly Roman in
administration, and was in a state of disarray because of internal quarrels,
‘The Persian Empire was ruled by the Sassanians, was Zoroastrian in
religion, Persian in culture, and weakened by external wars. The two
powers were unable to successfully confront the Arab advance which
suddenly burst upon them. In 642 Alexandria, protected by walls and
towers and guarded by the Byzantine fleet, fell to the Arabs. The hub
of intellectual and cultural life for about a thousand years and the proud
possessor of some of the best monuments of antiquity, Alexandria layin
ruins before the arms of the Arab commander Amr ibn al-As.4 According
to a well-known story, the manuscripts from the famous library supplied
fuel for the public baths for six months. The story also relates the oft-
quoted remark allegedly made by Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab (ca.
634-44) when he consented to the destruction of the library: “If these
writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and
need not be Preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought
to be destroyed.” The story, however, is no more than a fable. It makes
its first appearance in the solitary report of a stranger, Abul Faraj, who
wrote five hundred years later.> The reported sentence of the Caliph is
alien to the traditional precept of the Muslim casuists who had expressly
commanded the preservation of captured religious texts of the Jews and
Christians, and had declared that the works of profane scientists and
philosophers could be lawfully applied to the believer.

Seldom in history has there been a parallel for transcribing î
falsehood with such Persistence, conviction, and indignation, in spite
of contrary evidence, Gibbon, like many other scholars, denied both
the fact and the consequences. In fact, the Arabs were far too fond of
books and knowledge to behave in this manner. They built a number
of famous libraries in their empire, and their librarians were often mên
of high learning. But many other Asian conquerors, such as Mahmu

gi Ghazni, Holagu, and Genghis Khan, destroyed libraries. Europe
invaders from Palestine and Syria burned the magnificent libraty at
Tripolis during the First Crusade. Many early and mediaeval Christian
enthusiasts burned libraries, archives, and works of art in North Afc%

152

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE
pre-Columbian America, Rome, and Asia. It is likely that Emperor
Theodosius of Constantinople destroyed all or part of the library of
Alexandria because, as a devout Christian, he did not approve of pagan
books—Greek or Asian.

During the reign of Walid (705-715), Arabs landed in Spain in 709
and soon conquered the Iberian peninsula. The Arab expansion in the
West was only checked in 732 by the Franks under Charles Martel
on the plains of Tours. By this time Persia, and Western and Central
Asia were under their domination.® The vast empire, which the Arabs
had conquered for Islam and its Caliphs between northern Spain and
Transoxiana, was twice as large as the Roman Empire had ever been.

THE STAGGERING RAPIDITY with which the Arabs expanded westward
may have been partly due to the internal conflicts within the Christian
world and the Western persecution of the Eastern Christians, who
consequently were alienated from their Western co-religionists. Also, it
appears that Arab expansion was an unintentional extension of internecine
wars; civil wars imperceptibly developed into wars of conquest. Whether
or not the spectacular conquests were initially an expansion of the Islamic
religion or of the Arabian nation is much debated. Whilst the role of
religion as an inspiring force in the Arab conquest must be admitted, it
would be wrong to underestimate the part played by Arabism. In fact, in
the early phase of its expansion Islam was identified with Arabism, as is
suggested by the attitude of the Arabs who held the non-Arab Muslims
to be somewhat inferior. The newcomers could only enter the faith by
becoming malawi (clients) of one or the other Arab tribes. There is no
aut that first in Arabia, then in the neighbouring areas of western
ie ae ae in successive waves of conquests the Arabs organized
e e ves and those of the conquered according to the ordained
i am and the evolving patterns of cultural interaction between
“i own and local traditions.
ae paces of India began in 712 under Muhammad bin
si Bien the defeat of Dahar, the ruler of Sind. This action was
esert princi ue and Arab rule in India remained confined to the small
é ipality in Sind for the next five hundred years, during which

time : ;
Arab relations with the neighbouring Indian states were cordial.

153

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The Arab conquest of a variety of peoples under one hegemony
fresh impetus to cultural exchange and a cultural dimension to Islam

Save |

But, despite their brilliant military victories, the Arabs failed to Suppress

factionalism and dissension within their own body politic. The rivalries
over the Caliphate led to frequent armed conflicts to a change in the
capital of the Islamic Empire, and to fragmentation of the Caliphate
into splinter groups. It is often said that the rule of the first four Caliphs
(632-660) was the only period when the Muslim state was run according
to the Islamic concept. These Caliphs are therefore called al-Khulaja
al-Rashidun, rightly guided Caliphs. Under their rule Islam was firmly
established in Arabia and spread far beyond its borders. Yet, dissensions
were so deep that the last three of these Caliphs were murdered. In 656
when the fourth Caliph Ali was engaged in fighting a combination of
his adversaries, the seat of the Caliphate was transferred from Medina to
Kufa. Five years later, following the murder of Ali, Muawiya, the ruler
of Syria and an enemy of Ali, became Caliph and founded the Umayyad
Caliphate with Damascus as the new capital of the Muslim world.’ By
the eleventh century the Arab Empire had begun to disintegrate. In the
thirteenth century the Mongol attacks under Genghis Khan and his
grandson Hulagu, dealt Arab power a shattering blow. Their successors
reigned in Persia until the second wave of invaders from Central Asia
under Timur (1380-1405) spread devastation throughout western Asia
The unity of Islam was, in a political sense, destroyed. ‘The defeated
Abbasids, who had succeeded the Umayyads, established their line of
the Caliphate in Cairo, This lasted until 1517 when it was overthrow

by the Ottoman Turks who retained the Caliphate until it was abolished
by Kemal Ataturk in 1924.

The replacement of the Umayyads by the Abbasids in 750 was ê

landmark in Islamic history. Arab nationalism and Islam were 9°
longer identified as one and Arab dominance of the Islamic world w*
supplemented by Persian ascendancy. Thus, the Arab kingdom became
increasingly cosmopolitan, although the centre of Islamic power m We
from the Mediterranean Province of Syria to Persia, a country intersect?
by many trade routes and wit i

ha long, rich history.
‘The Abbasid Caliphate was stronger than the Umayyads, althoug?
no less despotic. Thé Cali

ph, accorded new dignity and titles plus je
154

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

pomp and ceremony of an elaborate and hierarchic court, came to be
regarded as the deputy of God himself rather than the deputy of the
Prophet of God. Although the seat of Islamic power was now located
in Persia, Arab aristocracy retained its supremacy. Yet the Abassids were
not quite as “Arab” as the Umayyads were. The Caliph himself belonged
to a great Arab family although the mothers of the Abbasid Caliphs for
generations were Persians. Persian nobles filled the court and Persian
soldiers the army. For a time Arabs and Persians forgot their national
differences under their obedience to Islam but this position could not
last indefinitely; political rivalries and dormant ambitions were bound
to come to the surface eventually.

In 762 the capital of the new Caliphate was moved from Damascus
to Baghdad, which, occupying a commanding position on the overland
route between India and the West, assumed the role of Alexandria and
kept the torch of learning alive when Europe was plunged into barbarism.
Baghdad remained the centre of intellectual life until about the end of the
tenth century when this function was transferred to Cordova in Spain.
Both capitals were focal points of Arab culture. The cultural atmosphere
of Baghdad was so magnificent that it became a true Dar al-ulum, or
House of Learning, and during this period scholarship reigned supreme.
The nation of warriors rapidly became both the patrons and cultivators
of intellectual pursuits. Piety was no longer its own reward, and learning
was accorded munificent patronage. This was Islam's age of glory which
reached its peak under the most eminent of the Abbasid Caliphs,
Harun Al Rashid (786-809). The famous Arabian Nights have made his
TWE almost a household word. He defeated the Byzantine Emperor
i and occupied Constantinople in 782. Although the solidarity
ee sess power was broken up into splinter Caliphates—Spain in
ee pene in 788, and Tunisia in 800 became virtually independent
ee dynasties, and Egypt fell out in 868—one of the most

ous periods in the history of thought and culture began.
of ae a travellers and world traders, the Arabs, taking advantage
of the a Sen supremacy, became the chief navigators and merchants
i ene y Middle Ages, It was, in fact, an Arab pilot who took Vasco
ahs a across the Indian Ocean in 1498. Arab ships sailed the length
editerranean and there was great activity between the ports of

155

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the Persian Gulf, such as Siraf, Basra, and Ubulla, and India and beyond,
The rivers of Iraq linked the Gulf with Baghdad, and the direct Red Seq
route between the Indian coast and the Egyptian ports, too, continued
to be dominated by the Arabs. Thus, East-West contact during the
period of Arab ascendancy became still closer. Within a few years of
their occupation of the Syrian and Egyptian coastlines the Arabs built
and manned great war fleets which were able to defeat the powerful and
experienced Byzantine navy and to control the Mediterranean, so vital
for the security and expansion of their empire.

It is said that the ascent of Arab greatness was due to their commercial
enterprise. In addition to the sea routes, the overland routes connecting
Arabia, western Asia, India, and China were extremely busy. The
merchants of Baghdad imported Chinese silks and Indian spices, as well
as tigers, panthers, elephants, panther skins, rubies, white sandalwood,
ebony, and coconuts. Cotton was originally imported from India but later
it was cultivated in eastern Persia and spread westward as far as Spain.
From Baghdad the merchandise was dispatched to Spain and thus to
Europe. Land routes also linked Baghdad with Africa and Russia. The
number of Arab coins dating from the late seventh to the early eleventh
centuries, found not only in the Volga basin but also in Scandinavia,
especially Sweden, and some even in Britain would indicate how
widespread Arab commercial influence was in the early Middle Ages.

‘The extensive and Prosperous commercial life of the Arab world was
inevitably reflected in its thought and literature. Merchants, soldiers,
and scholars travelled the Islamic Empire from Spain to India in sear ch
of knowledge, glory, and profit, thus accelerating cultural intercourse:
‘The Islamic civilization which resulted did not possess a well-defined
p ersonality, having acquired regional variations over its long period
of historical development. Fluidity and diversity were the principi
characteristics of classical Islamic civilization. But, although the Islamic

culture is highly syncretic, it is founded in Arab culture initiative, 2"
endeavour,

In turn, however,
of the intellectual ac
indigenous culture,
borrowed from Indi

Arab culture itself was rooted in an amazing synth
hievements of older civilizations. The Arabs had hele
and much that was Not very attractive. They mainly
an, Greek, and Persian sources. The preservation ae

156

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

the integration of these various streams of thought was the principal Arab
contribution to world civilization. The syncretic nature of Arab culture
is well illustrated by the fact that three of their most important gifts to
the West—Aristotle, Arabic numerals, and paper—came from Greece,
India, and China respectively.

Arab culture developed in western Asia where the scientific heritage
of the Greeks, enriched by contributions from Persia and India, was
translated and publicized in Syrian, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Pahlavi.
In the neighbourhood of Baghdad the Nestorians founded a school at
Jundishapur which was primarily concerned with the study of Greek
philosophy and science. At the same time Indian philosophical and
scientific works were also studied and translated. Al Kindi, commonly
regarded as the greatest philosopher of the Arabs, wrote in the Preface of
his Metaphysics: “It is fitting then for us not to be ashamed to acknowledge
truth and to assimilate it from whatever source it comes to us, even if
it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him
who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself;
it never cheapens nor abases him who searches for it, but ennobles and
honours him.”

‘The Arabic translations of Greek and other philosophical texts began
in carly Abbasid times under the patronage of the Caliphs, Al Mansur
and Al Rashid. But with the reign of Al Mamun (813-33) a brisk, new
phase of development in Arabic literature began. The Caliph was an
extraordinary man and he used his authority to enforce a liberal standard
of orthodoxy. He wholeheartedly supported the pursuit of knowledge
a he himself participated enthusiastically in academic discussions. The

(Jt at hikma (the House of Wisdom, a kind of a library and museum
ee of the Alexandrian Library), founded at Baghdad in 830,
ane impressive library and observatory, attracted scholars and
Nae Soe intellectual pursuits, and in the divans of the Caliphs the
ee ee scientists, poets, and scholars assembled to debate Grete
sth > € most illustrious name in this circle was that of Al Khwarizmi,

rote on mathematics, astronomy, and geography.
ee Harun Al Rashid was fond of literature and philosophy, Al
aA Interested in the sciences, especially biology. Thus, in order
ab culture to assimilate the neighbouring cultures, Al Mamun

to

157

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

encouraged exchange with India. Arab scholarship, in direct Contact |

with Indian, Greek, and Persian systems of thought, now bloomed into
its most brilliant period of development. Hitherto Muslim learning
had been influenced only indirectly by the older centres of culture. The
impact of the foreign systems of thought on Arab learning was so great
that it has been compared to the reintroduction of Greek literature into
Europe at the Renaissance.

Al Mamun’s immediate successors followed his example enabling
foreign influences to find fullest expression throughout the empire,
‘Thus, the period of rich new developments in Arab learning which began
with the reign of Harun Al Rashid reached its zenith during the reign
of Al Mamun and his successors. However, from 850 to 950, whilst
Baghdad remained the chief cultural centre, various other centres sprang
up challenging Baghdad’s supremacy. Cordova in Spain became quite
famous, and Ghazna, Samarkand, Merv, Herat, Tus, Nishapur, Ray,
Isfahan, Shiraz, Musul, Damascus, Jerusalem, Cairo, Qairawan, Fas,
Marrakush, Toledo, Seville, and Granada also played significant roles
in the spread of learning. It was from Toledo, for instance, that Europe
first learned that scholarship had no national frontiers but belonged
to the whole of mankind. At Toledo Arabs, Jews, Greeks, Christians,
Spaniards, Frenchmen, Germans, and others worked together.

Scholars and translators counted amongst themselves persons of purè
and mixed Arab descent, converts to Islam, and Christians, some of whom
belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church although the majority we
Nestorians or Jacobites. Even many of the mediaeval Arab philosophes

were not of Arab descent, For example, Al Farabi was a Turk, and
Razi (Rhazes) and Ibn Sina (A:

k vicenna) were Persians. This led the At ab
historian Ibn Khaldun to comment that it was strange that most of the
learned Muslims were, with rare exceptions, Ajam (non-Arabs); a
even those savants who claimed Arab descent spoke a foreign languag’
had grown up in foreign lands, and had studied under foreign maste
The peoples of Islam were bound together by religion and languag? r
included peoples of varied nationalities. More important, they were 1
close contact with a variety of non-Muslims, such as Chinese, Indians
Mongols, Malays, Greeks, Copts, Syrians, Magians, Berbers, Sicilian’
Spaniards, Franks, and Jews. Consequently, many important schola”

158

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

who published their work under Islamic patronage were not Muslims.
For example, the great chemist; Jabir ibn Hayyan, was probably a
Sabian; the physicians, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Ibn Butlan, and Ibn Jazla
were Christians.

In different groups and schools the activity of translators continued
in degrees of varying intensity until the eleventh century. Whilst during
this period a number of original Arab works were also written, translation
work was not regarded as merely mechanical or inferior. Although there
were some Greek manuscripts available in the cities of western Asia at
the time, these were mainly Syriac translations of the Greek originals.
Many of the translators were not accomplished philosophers, but without
their painstaking work the development of Western thought would have
been seriously impaired, and its link with the Greek past would never
have been forged. Even Arab philosophy would have hardly come into
existence, as these translations laid the foundation of an Arab style and
built a complex framework of Arab philosophical terminology. The
translations also made it possible for the Greek and Islamic systems of
thought to pass on to mediaeval Jewry, giving Jewish philosophy a much
needed intellectual stimulus.

The Arabs of the day were enthusiastic, accurate, and prolific
translators and they would often undertake long journeys in search of
manuscripts. It is not commonly realized that, in addition to a number
of Greek works, they also translated many Indian and Persian studies,
with the help of Persian and Indian translators. In fact, the translation
Movement began when a Persian Muslim master of the Arabic language
and style, Abu Muhammad ibn al-Mugaffa (ca. 760), rendered the
tancatantra into Pahlavi, and several works on medicine and logic
ke Arabic, lbn al-Mugaffa served under Isa ibn Ali, uncle of the first

>basid Caliph, Al Suffah (750-54). His Arabic version, Kalila wa

“Na, of the splendid Indian tales led to translations into some forty

“Topean and Asian languages.
e Arabs had studied Indian and Persian works long before becoming
a a in Greek thought. By that time, at least one thousand years
dee between the Hellenic and Arab cultures and whatever
and Ales critage had reached the Arabs came to them through Syria
andria and was already influenced by Eastern ideas. The classical

inter

159

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

period of Greek philosophy was long over, and its original flavour had |

been highly spiced by later schools, such as Neoplatonism. Plato and

Aristotle were read through their later exponents’ interpretations and

these in the Syriac versions. From the fourth century Greek Philosophy
and its Neoplatonic commentaries, and Greek science were studied in |
the schools and monasteries of Syria and Mesopotamia. In fact some |

Greek philosophical texts, lost through Byzantine neglect or deliberate
destruction are preserved only in Arabic translations. For example, the
lost treatises of Galen, Greek commentaries on Aristotle, and sections
of a paraphrase of Plotinus are found only in the Arabic version. The
value of Arab translations of the works of Aristotle and his exponentsis
appreciably great. Whilst Neoplatonism gave rise to acute controversies
involving the relationship between pantheism and the unrelenting
monotheism of the Quran, a number of scholars were engaged in
making Greek science and philosophy accessible to the Arabic-speaking
world. The history of this literary activity is somewhat uncertain. The
earliest known translator was Qustah ibn Luga of Baalbak, who lived
about 835 and who not only translated Aristotle and other writers but
wrote profusely himself on scientific subjects. Later, Arabic learning
was enriched by even more prominent and prolific writers, such as
Humayan ibn Ishaq (d. 873); Al Kindi (d. 850), called the philosopher
of the Arabs because he was of pure Arab descent and who is credited
with no fewer than 265 treatises on a wide range of subjects from music
to medicine; Al Khwarizmi, who studied not only the Greek works 0"
mathematics and astronomy but also the Indian systems, and who by
the use of Indian numerals revolutionized mathematical calculations
and Al Farabi (870-950),
ra bic literature reached across the Islamic world with exception!

ae and the intellectual stimulation it provided to the ce

etween China and Spain laid the foundation of a new age. The Aga
not only Preserved old knowledge, but, by providing a bridge betwee?
cultures, rejuvenated Western civilization

The Arabs transmitted Hellenic and Eastern knowledge to the ve

at a time when the latter needed it most, and they also gave the We
an extremely rare gift, the spirit of scientific inquiry, observation,

experimentation. European science owes its existence to the Arabs: 2”

r

160

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

elevated science from metaphysical speculation and put it on the path
of experimentation and operation. Their concern with identification

and verification, and thus with observation, accurate description, and
measurement helped to develop an objective scientific attitude. The
Arabs had, of course, acquired this disciplined approach to scientific
observation from Alexandria where it had existed for some time. It must
also have partially originated in the East because, although the Greeks
systematized, generalized, and theorized, they did not practice sustained
observation, collection of data and positive knowledge, minute methods
of science, and investigation and experimentation. They were inquisitive
and curious, but curiosity alone is not enough for science.

Contact between India and the Arab world goes back to the beginnings
of recorded history. The long-established trade between the Persian Gulf
and India resulted in several notable Arabic works, such as the Chain
of Histories and Marvels of India, in addition to manuals of navigation
in prose and verse. With the rise of Islam these ties were intensified,
and the transfer of the capital of the Arab Empire from Damascus to
Baghdad in 762 established closer links with the sea routes to India and
China. Merchandise was carried from Baghdad to Basra, and thence
to Siraf, the main Arabian port of embarkation situated in the Persian
Gulf. From Siraf goods were transported to India, Southeast Asia, and
China, ‘The proximity of the new capital to the Persian Gulf gave a fresh
impetus to trade with southern India. The Arabs exchanged goods with
Gujarat, Kathiawar, Konkan, Malabar, the Coromandal coast, Bengal,
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, western Sumatra, Malaya, Indochina,
T a oe cultural and commercial contacts between the Arabs
te a ndia continued until the arrival of the Portuguese in India

of the fifteenth century.

e Arabs appear to have had a high regard for India. Saif-i-Hindi
Eo was their favourite weapon. There is some evidence to
the Jats eee the time of Prophet Muhammad, Indian tribes resembling
Wife of the z settled in Arabia and Iraq. When Ayasha, the favourite
ndian h sees fell ill she was reported to have been treated by an

attested si m from the Jat tribe. Arab interest in India is also well
as § ia € record of the numerous Arab travellers to India, such
e merchant, Abu Zaid Sirafi, Dulaf bin Muhalhil, Buzurg

(the ]

161

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

—

bin Shahryar, Masudi, Istakhri, Ibn Haukal, Muqaddisi, A1 Biruni, ang |

Ibn Battuta, who has been called “The Traveller of the Arabs” because of

his extensive journeys. Arab historians were generous in their appreciation |
of India. Said Al-Andalusi in his Tabaqat al-Ulam called India “a mine |
of wisdom, a source of law and politics,” and Indian scientists wer |

acknowledged to be masters of the science of numbers (ilm al-adad), |

of geometry and astronomy, and to have surpassed all other peoples in
their knowledge of medicine. Yaqubi characterized the Indians as men
unsurpassed in science, especially astronomy. The period between 50)
and 800 was indeed a remarkable period of scientific activity in India,
especially in astronomy and mathematics. Abu Mashan described India
as a noble country and said that all ancient peoples acknowledged the

excellence of her peoples’ wisdom, knowledge, and sense of justice. The |
Abbasid Caliphs, Al Mansur, Harun Al Rashid, and Al Mamun, even |

recruited Indian or Indian-trained ministers during their administrations. |

‘These ministers were known as Barmaks (a derivative from Pramukha);
Barmakites, or Barmecides who were originally Buddhists and Heads
(Pramukha) of the Nava Vihara at Balkh.” This temple later came to be
known as the great Magian fire temple, and its high priest bore the title
of Barmak. Upon the foundation of the Abbasid Caliphate, Khalid ws
the first Barmak to hold the important office of state under Saffah and

Mansur (754-775) and his son Yahya was the tutor of Harun Al Rashid, |

who upon his accession to the Caliphate appointed Yahya as his grand
Vizier (prime minister). Under the patronage and tactful administration
of the Barmaks, Baghdad became a centre of Indian learning.

From this time on Arab and Muslim historians, geographers, an
travellers began to visit India increasingly. Ahmad bin Yaqub bi

Jafar, who came to India in the tenth century, compiled a list of Indi
works translated into Arab

his encyclopaedic Kitab al-Fibrist mentions repeatedly a wide range
works on Indian thought.

‘The two most eminent sch
world, Al Biruni (97
works profoundly i

olars and greatest minds of the
3-1048) and Al Khwarizmi (d. ca. 850), W i
nfluenced the growth of scientific thous Pi
Europe, were well versed in Indian thought and languages: Bi
had travelled widely in India and had painstakingly learned Sanskiit"

- 162

ic. Muhammad bin Ishaq ibn al-Nadim '" |

And

hoe |

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE

order to translate Indian scientific writing into Arabic. It was only after

visiting India that he wrote his monumental work on mathematics,
physics, geography, and astronomy. He ea some works of Indian
philosophy, such as Kitab Patanjaland Kapila’s Sanka. He wrote Kitab al-
Bayan, a work on the principles of Indian rhetoric, and even a history of
India, Tarikh al-Hind, in which he pointed out that the Hindus were too
arrogant about their science and country. His work on the comparative
chronology of nations, Al-Athar al-Bagiyak an al-Quran al-Khaliyah, is
well known and often quoted by European writers.

In physics Al Biruni used the displacement method to calculate the
specific weight or gravity of eighteen different precious and semiprecious
stones. He also experimented with great accuracy on some minerals.
In mathematics he finalized Arab knowledge and the use of Hindu
numerals, solving many intricate problems relating to angles, conics,
and cubic equations. He also made outstanding contributions “to the
principles of hydrostatics, which he investigated in the artesian wells of
India.” His work on India, a product of some thirteen years of labour,
in content and scientific method is outstanding in Arabic literature. He
translated many Indian books into Arabic and, more curiously, several
ee translations from the Greek into Sanskrit. He represented that

happy and fertile blend of Arabic and Indian literatures which is one
of the best fruits of Muslim civilization.”

By the time the Arabs arrived the Indians had mastered many
astronomical concepts, amongst them were the solar system; the lunar
ie nakshatras; the precession of the equinoxes and the
ea a of its rate; the establishment of the lunisolar year; the
e > of the sun, moon, earth, and the other planets; the
ees > Ta distances of the planets based on the theory of equal
cans one € rotation of the cal on its axis; the revolution of the
an explanatio e sun; and the assumption of interplanetary attraction as

ation of equilibrium.
a? Taui sophisticated mathematics, and the use of the
repres a A was aroituesal asa contribution to the mathematical
orth cents 0. fe positions. Itis in the Surya Siddhanta, aworkofthe
renowned Sa a the trigonometric sine is first mentioned. The most
e Arab astronomers, Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani

163

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

m N

(877-918) whose astronomical tables superseded Greek knowledge and |
were widely diffused throughout mediaeval Europe, introduced wA
Arab science the use of ratios, sine, and tangent, which were contained

in Aryabhata’s geometry. When Copernicus (1473-1543) replaced the |

hitherto prevalent concept of the closed and hierarchical cosmos Which |
had survived since antiquity, with that of the homogeneous and infinite |

universe of modern science, he extensively used the contributions t
trigonometry made by Abul-Wafa (940-998) who continued the work
of Al Battani. In fact, trigonometry was first studied by the Arabs as
branch of astronomy, and only later studied independently.

The Indian decimal notation and the concept of zero were similarly
passed on to Europe through Arab scholarship when Al Fazari translated
Brahmagupta’s Siddhanta in 771 under the title Sindhind, although it
was not until in the nineteenth century that Colebrooke first noticed the
connection between the two. This treatise was brought to Baghdad by
an Indian astronomer, who had come on a political mission from Sind

to the court of the Caliph Al Mansur. Ibn al-Adami, confirmed by Al |

Biruni, has recorded in detail the manner in wich Indian astronomy
was introduced at Baghdad. Later, Yaqub ibn Tang incorporated in his
Tarkib al-Afiak principles of Indian astronomy. The Khanda-Khadyati

of Brahmagupta, called by the Arabs Al Arkand, and Aryabhata’ |

and Varahamihira’s works on astronomy were also studied. Al Bin
translated Surya Siddhanta of Varahamihira.

Al Khwarizmi, who laid the foundation of Arab astronomy and
higher mathematics, and to whom the world is indebted for its present

knowledge of algebra, was greatly indebted to Indian scholarship. 1" his |

work on algebra entitled Book of Calculation of Restoration and Reduction
Al Khwarizmi used Indian as well as Greek and Babylonian sources

His arithmetic was based on the Indian decimal notation and num” |

é : it
and had tremendous influence on mathematics in Europe through i
translation into Latin in the twelfth century. During the latter half oft

eighth century an Indian brought to Baghdad two important scient |

treatises on astronomy and mathematics Al Khwarizmi abridge T
: 5 3 b 5
astronomical work, Siddhanta, into Arabic about 820 and used its

in revising Ptolemy’s and constructing his own. The trigonometric t
of Al Khwarizmi were translated into Latin by Adelard of Bath in!

164

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE
Through the replacement of Ptolemy’s calculus of chords by the calculus
of sines or trigonometry, astronomical knowledge made great advances.
Other contemporary writers such as Fazl bin Hatim Naziri and Hassen
bin Misba also made use of the Indian system. In the ninth century Al
Kindi wrote a tract on Indian computation, Hisabul Hindi. It was through
the Arabs that Indian astronomy, despite the complete isolation of India
from Europe during the Middle Ages, exercised an indirect influence
on modern Western astronomy. The Indian system with its theory of
the “trepidation,” or pendulum movement, of the fixed stars found
wide acceptance amongst the Arab astronomers of Spain, but since it
conflicted with the Ptolemaic system of the continuous precession of the
equinoxes, it gave rise to a considerable body of polemical and critical
writing. This reached its peak in the thirteenth century and influenced
Christian circles in Europe. One positive aspect of the Crusades was that
they, unintentionally although unavoidably, provided an opportunity
for cultural intercourse between Europe and Asia during the mediaeval
period.

Long before the Arabs began translating Indian scientific works, the
Persians had begun the process of synthesizing Indian knowledge with
Persian, which had reached its zenith during the reign of Anushirwan
(Kushro I, 531-579). Syrian astronomers, such as Severus Sebokht,
also knew of Indian achievements and in 662 he wrote of Hindu
humerals—the first known mention of them outside India—and of
Hindu computation which excelled the spoken word and was done with
nine symbols. Hence, the possibility of Indian ideas having reached the
Arabs through Persian texts cannot be ruled out.

Pon development of Arab science, especially astronomy and
daa en was largely inspired by the various prevalent Alexandrian
PEN 7 sustained by the guate of Arab aioin, the first
fates me came from India. But the Arabs’ own tradition of
the cee in their long desert Joumess they depended on the stars for
establishment ot received considerable encouragement through ane
ate He several observatories under the Umayyad and Abbasid

si calte ee looked upon astronomy as the noblest and
Doa ot sciences, for the study of stars was an indispensable
S1ous observances, determining for instance the month of

Mo.

165

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

oe

Ramadhan and the hours of prayers. The observatory at Jundishapy: fa

Iran, a centre of learning especially in medical science, was Particul
suited as a focal point for Western and Indian contact. Even

arly |
after the |

decline of the Abbasid Caliphate, interest in astronomy continued, Jy |
the thirteenth century the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan, who had

deposed the Caliphate of Baghdad, and who was led by his superstitious

belief in astrology, founded the great Margha observatory at Azerbaijan, |

This observatory was well known for its monumental instruments, and
India was always in close contact with it. Here Arab, Persian, Greek,
Chinese, and Indian learning interacted on one another.

About a century and a half later in the fifteenth century, Ulug Begh,

grandson of the Turkish conqueror Tamurlane, built an observatory |

in Samarkand and it was here that new planetary tables and a new star

catalogue were prepared, the first since Ptolemy’s. It is quite possible |
that the renewed inspiration for erecting observatories at Jaipur, Delhi, |

and elsewhere in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with their
wonderfully accurate instruments, came from Central Asia. They almost
certainly had their ancient counterparts although no material evidences
now available. In the seventeenth century, despite traditional objections
certain Indian astronomers began to introduce Arab and Western ides
For example Kamalakara borrowed generously from the Arabs when i
wrote his Siddhantaviveka in 1658.

When the Arabs assumed the position of political ascendancy

i 5 : P as |
in the world, medical science in India was already mature. Ít W

inevitable, therefore, that the Arabs should have been attracted
Indian developments in this field. Even at the time of Alexander, “3
Garrison, “Hindu physicians and surgeons enjoyed a well-desev™
reputation for superior knowledge and skill,” and some schola®
have suggested the influence on Aristotle of Indian medical ideas

Barzouhyeh, who Prepared a Pahlavi version of the Pancatantra cu
the reign of Anushirvan (531-579), visited India to acquire profie™
in Indian medicine and other sciences. Ibn al-Nadirn relates that ae
Caliph Harum Al Rashid suffered from a serious disease which b4 p
his physicians at Baghdad he called for an Indian physician, Me
(Manikya), who cured him. The Caliph rewarded him richly and Mat s
settled at Baghdad and was attached to the hospital of the Barmak

166

|

PAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE
Having acquired a thorough knowledge of Islamic religion and languages,
he translated several books from Sanskrit into Persian or Arabic. There
are records of many other Indian physicians who practiced medicine
amongst the Arabs; two of them were Ibn Dhan and Salih, reputed
to be the descendants of Dhanapati and Bhela respectively. Ibn Dhan
was appointed the director of his hospital by the Barmak Yahya, and
he is credited with having translated books from Sanskrit into Arabic
and Persian. Indian physicians were superintendents of the hospitals at
Baghdad. Indian medical works were rendered into Pahlavi and Arabic
during the Abbasid Caliphate; amongst them were Caraka, Susruta,
the Ashtangahrdaya, the Nidana, the Siddhayoga, and other works on
diseases of women and their treatment, poisons and their antidotes, on
drugs, medicaments, intoxicants, nervous diseases, etc. Susruta’s manual
was translated by Manka and entitled Sasru; Ibn Dhan translated two
other Sanskrit works, describing them as Sindhstan and Istsangir. Greek
medical works were also translated and the Arabs were quite familiar
with them as well."
Ali bin Rabban’s pupil, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
(865-925), began the golden age of Arab medicine. He anticipated
Pasteur by more than one thousand years, for when ordered by the Caliph
to build a new hospital, he hung up pieces of fresh meat in various parts
of Baghdad and chose the site where the meat putrefied most slowly,
because, as Pasteur was to demonstrate, the atmosphere was pure and
bacteria less active. Al Razi was a Persian who knew Greek, Persian,
pees medicine. He was one of history’s great doctors and one of
Ah Tbe, ae Muslim physicians and chemists; the other being Abu
T tes ee He was a prolific writer vio produced about
T a books, half of them on medicine. His greatest work on
of CaaS medicine; Al Hawi, was translated into Latin by Gerard
T k and remained a standard text in European medical colleges
ne venteenth century. It draws heavily on Graeco-Arabic and
N sources, 5
a 7 Ashau propounded the Arabic system of atomism. That
would ala N by someone very familiar with Indian sciences
a = e Arab adoption, almost wholly, of the lacin atori
, unciated by the Nyaya-Vaisesika and the Jain and Ajivika

167

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

schools of thought, in marked preference to the Greek atomic theo
founded by Leucippus and Democritus.

As Arab medicine developed, it spread through North Africa and |

reached its highest expression in the University of Cordova in Spain
In addition, other streams of thought converged on the College of
Salerno near Naples, the first medical school in the Christian world, The
Church played no part in its foundation, for it was reputedly started by
four masters—Elinus the Jew, Pontus the Greek, Adale the Arab, and
Salernus the Latin—in the tenth century, perhaps even earlier. It was
certainly much older than the Universities of Paris and of Bologna, which
are regarded as the two archetypes of the European university.

Arab toxicology, which marked the advance from alchemy to
rational medicine, was, as reflected in the works of Ibn Wahshiya, Jabir,
Maimonides, and others, greatly influenced by Indian concepts, and
especially the Book of Shanab. Shanab may well have been the Arabic
version of Caraka for the work is based on the Carakasamhita, particularly
in its identification of poisonous substances and distinctions between
“mobile” and “immobile” poisons.”

Arab and, indirectly, European indebtedness to Indian science is
indeed great. Mediaeval Europe miserably lacked any scientific culture
until Eastern knowledge reached them through Arabic translations. ‘The
Romans, being a practical people, were uninterested in speculative of
pure scientific thought, and in consequence they completely disregarded
the progress made in scientific fields in the schools of Alexandria an
elsewhere: “Nota single Roman left his mark on mathematics, mechanics
or technology.” Without the Arabian contribution it is unthinkable
that the West could have absorbed the scientific knowledge of Indis,
Persia, Greece, and Alexandria as it did, thus laying the foundation s
its own superb progress. ,

Tt was in Spain that the Arabs achieved their greatest conquest se
Europe and it was through Spain that they made their most enduring
contributions to European civilization. On the eve of Arab conques!
Spain was in a weak and deplorable state. The Arab rule was tolerant
liberal, and a welcome change. The Arabs introduced scientific irrigation
and a number of new crops, such as cotton, rice, sugar cane, and ne
fruits, the first three having originated in India.!? The changes € }

168

y

pAX ARABICA, THE CHANNEL-BED OF CULTURE
prought about in the system of land tenure paved the way for Spanish
erity. Industries such as textiles, wool, pottery, paper, silk, and

rosp i
4 refining were developed and important gold, silver, and other mines

sugar-
ed up. In architecture there developed the new Hispano-Moorish

open
5 which produced such world-famous buildings as the Alcazar in

style,
a and the Alhambra in Granada.

There are Spanish historians who attempt to minimize the Arab
heritage of Spain, and some even conclude that Arab domination
retarded Spanish life, but there is considerable evidence pointing to
the deep indebtedness of Spain to the Arabs. The Amirs of Arab Spain
were enthusiastic patrons of scholarship, and Arab Spain was a citadel
of cultural heritage and progress. Whilst most of Europe was in a
decadent decline, both materially and spiritually, the Spanish Muslims
created a splendid civilization and an organized economic life. During
the reign of Abdurrahman (912-961) Spain rose to the foremost place in
European civilization. The Umayyad ruler, with his capital in Cordova,
was exceptionally talented, a valiant soldier, and a wise ruler with many
intellectual interests.2°
i The great variety of races in Muslim Spain probably hindered the
immediate integration of societies and cultures. But once momentum
gathered, development was impressive. Arab science and philosophy
dominated Spanish thought and life from the beginning of the ninth to
the end of the thirteenth century. In practical life, including legal and
military organization, Arab influence was so great that some Christian
ee such as Alvaro of Cordova, lamented the situation. The official

ce of Muslim Spain was classical Arabic; the Arabs were the
Cale ae the Spanish army, and they married freely into Spanish
el ? i he study of Muslim law and theology introduced Arab
mee : ue a fresh impetus to Arab learning. Scholars, students, and
cae ae ocked to Cordova and it soon became the intellectual capital
and there Stern world. The royal library was one of the best in Spain,
i Cone were, in addition, a number of celebrated private libraries
' va. The impact of Arab culture on Spain eliminated the local

Strust of hilosoph: hei d
and groy ae ne Op y end astronomy and cleared the way for their study
attracted z tin Spain, and later throughout Europe. Spanish scholars,
y this movement, travelled in the East, read the works of

169

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Greek and other philosophers, and, upon their return, served as another
channel of communication with the rest of Europe. “Muslim Spain
played a decisive part in the development of art, science, Philosophy,
and poetry, and its influence reached even to the highest peaks of the
Christian thought of the thirteenth century, to Thomas Aquinas and
Dante. Then, if ever, Spain was ‘the torch of Europe.””!

With the destruction of Cordova at the beginning of the eleventh
century by the Berbers, Toledo became the centre of Muslim learning in
Spain, and it retained this position after the Christian conquest in 10852
Toledo attracted scholars from all parts of Europe, including Britain, The
Italian Gerard of Cremona, who is credited with having carried more
of Arabic science into Europe than any other single scholar, Alfred the
Englishman, Michael the Scot, Hermann the German, Herman Dalmata
the Slav, all worked in Spain during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
‘The greatest name in English science before Robert Grossetete and Roger
Bacon, Adelard of Bath, was a student of Arab science and philosophy
in the twelfth century. He learned Arabic, as did the other scientist
of the day, and by the end of the thirteenth century, Arab science had
been transmitted to western Europe and absorbed, and Spain’s work as
an intermediary was done.

A major reason why the Arabs left a vast heritage of scientific
conceptual synthesis and not of speculative thought, may be because
religiously and philosophically their implicit faith in Islamic thought did
not allow them sufficient receptivity to other influences. But, in scien

and commerce they were not so inhibited and thus absorbed freely from
whatever quarters they could.

170

Chapter V

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN
ANCIENT INDIA

SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY were both highly developed disciplines
in ancient India. However, because Indian philosophic thought
was considerably more mature and found particular favour amongst
intellectuals, the tradition persists that any early scientific contributions
came solely from the West, Greece in particular. Because of this
erroneous belief, which is perpetuated by a wide variety of scholars,
it seems desirable to examine briefly the history of Indian scientific
thought.
The history of science in general is a comparatively new field and
* comprehensive account of Indian science and technology has yet
ae Despite the fact that a vast literature in Sanskrit is no
eu ailable, there are many documents waiting to be investigated.’
eee with the earliest known Indian civilization, the Indus Valley,
oe, A wheel, cotton textiles, Indus script, and two wheeled
basii al good deal of material and texts to work from. By the
Soave a e third millennium s.c. in India, as in China, Egypt, and
catied om a aes development was well advanced. Excavations
ancient aoe sites of the Indus civilization have revealed remnants of
Particularly R unsurpassed mee engineering accomplishments,
Measures of the 3 a drainage. Whilst much is known of the hygienic
Which eee period, little is known of the scientific knowledge upon
re based.

171

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

In ancient India, as in Greece, there was much speculative thought

about astronomy, mathematics, physics, and biology. But mathematies
and mysticism are inextricably mixed in early Greek thought, and Greek
belief in magic, divination and oracles was perhaps more Pronounced
than its counterpart in India. It is therefore untrue to assert, as recent
European writers particularly have done, that Greece was the home of
pure science. Equally untenable is the claim of those Indian historian
who overemphasize India’s contribution to scientific thought. Both India
and Greece, whilst having their own traditions, had direct and indirect
effects on each other in science as they did in philosophy. In fact, long
before the Greeks, the Indians had learned to employ the dialectic
method to grasp empirical and transcendental truths, although in India,
more perhaps than in ancient Greece or the modern West, reason and
truth, logic and mysticism, the visible and invisible, have always been
regarded as inseparable.

The practical application of science to human affairs was as poor in
India as in any other ancient society. In fact, this was not achieved until
the eighteenth century; until then science and technology developed
separately. In the seventeenth century, called “the cradle of modem
science,” Francis Bacon (1561-1626) through his Novum Organum
established a new methodology in the experimental interpretation of
nature. Although he failed to appreciate that the new science must be
based on mathematics, he wrote as a philosopher exposing the inadequacy
of old theories. He believed that mind, liberated from prejudice and
generalization, could by knowledge attain sovereignty over nature. With
little aptitude for practical science he yet understood the enormous
importance of a new way of investigating nature. He considered that
“the purpose of science was not to make up new theories about ine
nature and principles of things, but to lay firmer foundations of human
power and greatness. So Science was to minister to the Arts"
medicine, navigation, industry of all kinds.”? At about the same tim
René Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of analytical geomet") 2
France, also insisted on a new methodology basing his concept more °
deduction than experience. He commenced by subjecting everythin
to the test of doubt, including doubt itself. He insisted upon p10? }

experiment, thus laying the foundation of modern scientific research, 2”

172

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

advocated the practical application of scientific conclusions. The Italian
astronomer and experimental philosopher, Galileo Galilei (1564-1643),
was the first, however, to employ the modern scientific method in its
fullness. He was an enthusiastic and versatile man, skilful with his hands,
afine writer, and a competent mathematician. He founded the science of
anics in physics. However, his brilliant researches and remarkable

mechi
work incurred the wrath of the Church and he was incarcerated by the
Inquisition at the advanced age of seventy. (There is hardly a parallel
in India where a difference in interpretation either in metaphysical or
scientific thought was so unkindly suppressed.) In view of the work of
Galileo and other Italian scientists, it is suggested that modern science,
like modern art, sprang from Italy. It was then that scientific thought
emerged from the realm of natural philosophy and formed the basis of
modern technology. It is this scientifically based technology upon which
contemporary civilization is built. Whilst science makes technology
possible, technology, in turn, widens scientific horizons.

The spirit of scientific enquiry and a rigorous correlation of cause
and effect in explaining natural phenomena were particularly evident in
ancient India. The connection between Indian philosophy and medicine,
mathematics, astronomy, and technology is, strangely enough, seldom
tealized much less recognized. Indian thought contained a strong element
of Philosophical naturalism or realism from which stemmed scientific
ideas, These, however, did not always come to fruition with the same
Ses and speed as in Italy or Europe during the modern period.
eee oe on the ultimate structure of matter, the evolution of
a ee their combination to form diverse substances oi the earth,
aie re of the compounds, etc., clothed in speculative language

ese Gab aape to have been put forward first by the Indians.
iek z measured the land, divided the year, mapped out the
T ao a e course of the sun and the planets through the zodiacal
and beasts, p] the constitution of matter, and studied the nature of birds
» Plants and seeds.”*

ilst in Western civilizations the interest has been increasingly
Scused on Single scie : : Prial veront
a8 been Sor, nces, in the Indian world the ontologic: ven n
through ee y preferred, and it would thus appear that “in India,
Periods, the special sciences are rooted in and developed on

173

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the underlying unifying cosmic concepts and presuppositions of Which |
the single scientific result is only a special case and Phenomenon, }
demonstration and a facet, as it were, of the universal cosmic law. This. |
universal vision in India has never been lost.” |

The beginnings of Indian scientific thought are traced to the same |
source as those of Indian metaphysics and religion, the Rig Veda. The
Vedas, being essentially works of poetic imagination, cannot be expected
to contain much spirit of scientific inqury, yet there are remarkable flashes
of intuitive conjecture and reason. In some of the hymns, especially in
Book X, strong naturalistic trends are found, whilst many of them make
the gods appear only slightly removed from the natural phenomena
which they represent. They express a kind of simple nature worship in
which man, who is regarded as “king of animals” and “first of beasts,”
is wonder-struck at the mighty forces of the universe. Indeed, in one of
the most remarkable of the vedic hymns—the “Song of Creation’—a
searching inquiry as to the origin of the world is made; it is certainly the
earliest known record of philosophic doubt.

‘Then was not non-existent nor existent;

There was no realm of air, no sky
beyond it,

What covered in, and where? and what
gave shelter?

Was water there, unfathomed depth
of water?

The hymn goes on to say that in the beginning there was neither ee
nor immortality, not day nor night. All that existed was void and formles
‘Then arose desire, the primal seed and germ of spirit. But,

Who verily knows and
who can declare it,
Whence it was born and
whence comes this creation?
‘The gods are later than this
world’s production

Who knows, then, whence it
first came into being?

174

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

In this hymn, which contains the essence of monism, can be seen a
representation of the most advanced theory of creation. Reality is not
named here; it is not identified with any of the gods. Indeed, the gods
come after the world’s creation. The vedic cosmos was self-sufficient and
self-perpetuating, unlike the Greek cosmos which implied pre-established
harmony and a stabilized order brought within the phenomena from
outside. Order is immanent in the Indian cosmos, not an externally
determined law.

The vedic civilization was naturalistic and utilitarian although it did
not exclude cosmological, religious, and mythical speculations. The
Vedas also allude to many scientific notions, some of which are also
found in ancient Iranian texts. In addition to detailed information
about diseases, drugs, and stars, some rather remarkable ideas relating
to the order of the world were common to both the Vedic and Iranian
documents. The world was conceived as governed by a cyclical law, rita
(the world-balance or world-course), meaning both normal and true.
Rita, of which Varuna was the custodian, was the law of nature and its
normal course was illustrated by the revolution of the planets and the
thythm of the seasons. A balance was conceived of between the universe
and the human and animal kingdoms. Unlike its Greek equivalent, in
which 4 planned order was introduced by an all-powerful creator, vedic
"ta was the functional balance of an already existent single phenomenon
in which each part functioned according to its own law of activity, and
all of them together balanced each other in the general rhythm of the
universe, In the ancient Iranian Avesta, this law was called asha and in
ae texts arta. One of the Amorena inscriptions een
vety iin h $ arta brazmaniya, (Brahmanic order). The notion of rita “is
oike a a ine referring as it does not only © oe natural but also
coe a = it represents an Overall determinism. It differs from
Out oF hand : €terminism in that it rejects all apparent irregularities
Physical k ee because they are nega It is less concerned vas
order.”” The i an ae norms, less with order, as such, than vilan ee
Which a a o rahman was associated with that of vak (“the wor
theworld. e sacred rites effective, and regulated the movement o

mophysiology and astronomy were the two fundamentals

of vedi
ic sci :
Science based on the observation and understanding of real

175

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

phenomena, although an irrational magic element flourished side by
side with them. :

It was in the later vedic period, however, that scientific thought or
the philosophy of naturalism became articulate. There is some evidence
to suggest, despite the destruction by priests and others of materials
pertaining to materialist ascendancy, that at times it even dominated the
Indian scene. The authority of the vedic hymns declined and intuition
gave way to inquiry, religion to philosophy. It was an age keenly alive with
intellectual interest and inevitably one of many-sided, even divergent,
development. Whilst there were many anomalies, contradictions, and
complexities in Indian thought, in which sorcery and science, scepticism
and faith and licence and asceticism co-existed, the emphasis was on
intellectual fervour and inquiry and on acceptance of the independent
and objective world. Formalized Indian logic was empirical. Indeed, the
two trends in Indian thought, trancendentalism and naturalism, have
always been neatly bound together without any obvious contradictions.
‘The germs of free speculation and scepticism were already present in
the Rig Veda. The Upanishads developed this spirit of inquiry, and
traces of naturalistic and scientific thought in them are quite significant.
Consequently, the worship of imaginary gods, the vested interests in
religion and theology, and speculation about things that could not be
perceived or subjected to sense experience were clearly denounced. In
upanishadic cosmology, Brahman is not like the conception of God, ?
demiurge, seated outside the world which he created and controlled:
There was no extraneous matter from which God created the univers®:
The direction of the world was caused by the world itself and nator
phenomena were not concerned with human values; moral rules we"
humanistic conventions made by men living in society. Truth was a
through direct perception, darshana. Lokayata, or materialism, literali
the philosophy or worldliness of the people, was the only Sastra for whic |
perceptual evidence was the authority. Matter became the only reall
which alone was cognizable by the senses. The ultimate principles es
the four elements—earth, water, fire, and air—which were eternal. Ak $
(space) was believed to be a substance from which nature derive 2
whole structure, and from which were evolved the other four elemen™
“From that Self (Brahman) sprang ether (Akasa, that through which”

176

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

hear); from ether air (that through which we hear and feel); from air fire
(that through which we hear, feel and see); from fire water (that through
which we hear, feel, see, talk, and smell).”* (It is very interesting that
early Indians seemed to know that sound was transmitted through the
air and not through a vacuum.) Thought was a function of matter, and
nature operated without any interference from the gods.

The Upanishads were the key to the mysterious relationships of
the things of this world. Their main purpose was to look at the world
objectively. In attempting to explain the multiplicity and diversity of
phenomena by simple natural laws, they did sometimes confuse the
superficial with the fundamental. They declined to submit, however,
to the inevitable destiny, which indicated their desire to comprehend
nature in terms of reason. In the early Upanishads, Uddalaka, possibly a
fictitious character, is portrayed as representing a naturalistic point of view
in marked contrast to Yajnavalkya, who represents the idealistic view.
Uddalaka’s hylozoistic view of the world was quite distinct from the vedic
cosmological and theogonic tradition, and is anterior in Indian literature
to that of the Ajivikas, or of Carvaka or Lokayata, usually called the first
materialistic school. Indeed, it was a period in which man rejected the
Principle of authority and insisted on the validity of reason. The Indians
Propounded natural philosophy through various systems—the Samkhya-
Yoga, the Nyaya-Vaisesika, and the theories of Carvaka and Uddalaka
are clearly naturalistic.

According to the Carvakas there was no world beyond the present one,
Ce could be megia only through sensory perception; What
fh Perceived did not exist. Their metaphysics was an Pe
acces poems claiming that the world was made up of tite our
otis E Saa oneer was a material a transl oy) modii aion
oleae a their ethics were hedonistic: Virtue and vice were S
joyously. F ne ao were merely social conventions, Life was to be Be
and Saas of man was unrestrained enjoyment. God, ee
p eea ty ver illusions. Their saiam assumed various forms o

S otiging are Scepticism, logical fatalism, and religious ea

ba o as far back as the Rig Veda, but the main wor

bund in othe, = 600 B.c.) is not avyailabic Fragments of information
exts reconstruct their materialist doctrine. They played

177

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

a role in Indian thought somewhat similar to that of the atomists and
sophists in Greece. In fact, the philosophies of Buddhism, Jainism, ang
the Ajivikas are strongly rationalistic. The Buddha has often been called
atheist, because of his indifference to God. According to Buddhism, man
must depend upon himself for salvation, not upon divine intervention,
Buddhism is not incompatible with scientific research, and it fostered
scientific speculation in India and elsewhere: “The Buddha’s purpose
was primarily philosophical, ethical, but his thought was distinctly of
scientific nature.”?

Jainism also contains outstanding naturalistic elements. The world
(loka) consists of matter, of atomic particles, whilst man controls his
own moral life without supernatural assistance.

The Samkhya system, which has been described as the ruling
philosophy of pre-Buddhist India and an orthodox system having
its roots in the Upanishads, is essentially rational, anti-theistic, and
intellectual. The major concern of Samkhya is to explain the workings
of nature through perceptual knowledge. It contradicts the tenets of
supernatural religion by substituting evolution for creation. The world
is not a creation of God but the product of the interaction between the
infinite number of Spirits and the ever active prokriti or the potentiality
of nature. According to Richard Garbe, it was in Samkhya doctrine

that complete independence and freedom of the human mind was
exhibited for the first time in history.” Samkhya, probably the oldest
Indian philosophical system, furnished the background for the Yogi
system, and the early Buddhist biography La/itavistara includes both
Samkhya and Yoga in the curriculum of study for the young Buddha.
Samkhya is generally ascribed to Kapila and Yoga to Patanjali: a
general metaphysical Position of these two systems with regard to soul
nature, cosmology, and ultimate goal is almost the same except that Yogi
acknowledges a god (Isvara) and stresses yogic practices for the liberation
of the atman, while Samkhya denies Isvara and suggests that since!
philosophic thought is sufficient to reveal truth and thus bring abou!
liberation. Samkhya looks upon the individual as a dynamic compl
of material processes arranged around an immaterial, fundament?
principle of consciousness, and this distinction between purusha A
prakriti and their conjoint functioning is the principal doctrine ofth

178

|
|

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

system. Prakriti is the sum-total of material processes, but without the
light of consciousness, purusha, it is blind and ineffective. On the other
hand, light without means of action is in the same position. Purusha, as
the unchanging principle of intelligence, reflected in prakriti creates the
visible universe. This heterogeneous universe (srishti) is a development
out of homogeneous prakriti, and to prakriti it returns. There has been
no creation nor will there be a destruction. The present world is but one
of a series which have existed and are yet to be.”

Whilst the Samkhya-Yoga system confined itself to the principles of
cosmic evolution, the Nyaya-Vaisesika dwelt on the method of science,
elaborating the concepts of mechanics, physics, and chemistry. Nyaya-
Vaisesika combined two systems embodied in the sutras attributed
to Gotama and Uluka respectively. Both are realistic systems based
on independent reasoning, opposing earlier phenomenalism and
idealism. Nyaya stresses logic and epistemology; Vaisesika, physics and
metaphysics. Both, however, have the liberation of self as their goal and
agree in essential principles, such as the nature of self and the atomic
theory of the universe. The Nyaya-Vaisesikas regard existence as the most
obvious characteristic of things. Atoms and souls, space and time, are
mere sounds and symbols having no meaning apart from experience. They
dismissed Samkhya cosmology but accepted the atomic doctrine of the
four elements. ‘Thus, in spite of the strong current of idealistic thought
which finally eclipsed naturalism in India, science figured prominently
in Indian intellectual life.

Ancient Indian work on grammar was not only more objective,
eee a brilliant than that done in Cica or Rome but £
area of their scientific methods of analysis. Although the date o
see se Sa the Ashtadhyayi, which comprise: aboni four thousand
Ea ha es tules, is yacon at is the earliest extant scientific
aa ; he world, having pee gaio no later arem the a

kda >, ut prior grammatical analysis is clearly evidenced es i
cea ne himself mentions over sixty predecessors in the :

an E the sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet ha
semivowels e vowels and diphthongs separated from i
palat T e A ilants, and the sounds had been grouped into gu S,
S, dentals, and labials. Panini and other grammarians,

179

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

especially Katyayana and Patanjali, carried the work much further, and i

ained a stereotyped
form which remained unaltered for centuries. Whilst Greek gr

the middle of the second century B.c. Sanskrit had att
ammar
tended to be logical, philosophical and syntactical, Indian grammar
was the result of an empirical investigation of language done with the
objectivity of an anatomist dissecting a body. It was the discovery of
Sanskrit by the West and the study of Indian methods of analysis that
revolutionized Western studies of language and laid the foundation of
comparative philology.

Science is essentially a series of experiments requiring various external
aids. Lacking the finer and more precise instruments for experimentation,
the ancient Indians used a careful analysis of observation. B. N. Seal,
analyzing this method of scientific research, pointed out that the processes
of perception, observation, experiment, fallacies of observation, inference,
and hypothesis were very accurately defined and strictly followed.”

Hindu research in exact science, before the beginnings of modem
science in Europe, covers the period from the Rig Veda to the middle
of the fourteenth century represented by Madhavacharya’s The Sixteen
Systems of Philosophy (1331) and Gunratna’s work on logic, the Rasaratna-
Samuchchaya (1350). This period may be divided into four somewhat
overlapping phases. The first phase is that of the vedic literature lasting
until about 800 s.c. The second, represented by the Vedanga Jyotish
the Srauta, Grhya and Dharmasutras, Manu and Yajnavalkya, Garga
and the Jain works, came to an end about the third century A.D. The
third, the period of the Siddhantas, which gave rise to the important
works of Aryabhata (born 476), of Varahmihira (ca. 475-550), and c
Brahmagupta (born 598), lasted until the rise of Islam. The fourth covered
the mediaeval period of Indian history. f

There is a divergence of Opinion as to the scientific impor tance °
the vedic texts. According to J. Filliozat and other recent scholars
these texts were the first attempts to systematize and codify scienti c
thought in astronomy and physiology." In contrast, early Indologis®
such as Macdonell and his pupil Keith, looked upon them #
somewhat vague cosmological fancies and found extremely little Be
of astronomical study in the vedic period. Nevertheless, it is certat
that the vedic Indians knew something of astronomy and that 1t 2

180

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

a high utilitarian value for them, as it did for all peoples of antiquity

ssed some elementary knowledge about the celestial bodies

who posse i `
and meteorological phenomena. The priest-astronomer, for example,
could give information of utmost value to a people who were largely

agricultural. The vedic priests had to make careful calculations of time
for their rituals and sacrifices, and also the headman of the tribe, as
in other ancient societies, had to determine the time of sowing and
harvest. Moreover, astronomical periods played an important role in
vedic thought, for they were considered to be successive parts of the
ever returning cosmic cycle. The temporal aspect of that cycle was only
one facet of the creative cosmic power, of the “word” of Prajapati, the
world spirit whose wisdom was expressed in the Vedas. The year was the
Prajapati’s unit of time and the Satapatha Brahmana states that the Veda
contains as many metrical divisions (10,800), as there are “moments”
in the year of the world spirit."

The Rig Veda lists a number of stars and mentions twelve divisions of
the sun’s yearly path (rashis) and also 360 divisions of the circle. Thus,
the year of 360 days is divided into twelve months. The sun’s annual
course was described as a wheel with twelve spokes, which correspond
to the twelve signs of the zodiac. In the Vedanga Jyotisa, a brief treatise
of which there were two recensions, one with forty-three verses and the
other thirty-six concerned exclusively with chronological calculations,
the vedic Indians determined the equinoctial and solstitial points and
associated them with Agni and Indra, and Mitra and Varuna. Composed
gt the close of the vedic period, the Vedanga Jyotisa contains the most
‘mportant of the short texts on the principles of the calendar. Its main
ree was to fix the dates of ceremonies so that they could coincide with

© given moments in the cosmic cycle thus ensuring its regularity. The
Tee listed are, however, too condensed to give direct Taen
oni poe astronomical concepts. the calendar was as
into three So > year cycle of 1830 days, with a 366-day year divide
sidereal o seasons. The cycle equalled approximately pees
Yearto the a : and contained sixty-two syndocal months. To keep ea
the ae aditional twelve months, two months—the thirty-first an
reckonin Cond-—were omitted in each cycle. Thus, lunar and Solas

§ coincided at the beginning and middle of a cycle. Asoka is

181

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

known to have used these figures in calculating the Precise duration af
his intended Buddhist pilgrimage.

In the Yajur Veda are listed twenty-seven or, if abhijit is added,
twenty-eight constellations called nakshatras, unquestionably the Most
important astronomical item in the vedic texts. For a long time the
nakshatras were regarded as lunar mansions or divisions in the path of
the moon. It was also thought that lunar reckoning was used to calculate
months, and a period of five years with sixty-two lunar months, called
Juga, was established to make it correspond with the solar year. In reality,
the nakshatras were used to follow the motions of the sun, as well as
those of the moon and the planets. The calendars of the vedic and later
periods were never either purely lunar or purely solar but lunisolar, for
Indian astrologers have always looked upon astronomical phenomena
as indivisible.'®

As this list of nakshatras is virtually identical with the Chinese sien
or hsui, J. B. Biot, in the middle of the last century, and de Saussure,
at the beginning of this, mistakenly suggested that India borrowed it
from China. But since Biot formulated his Opinion, it is now accepted
as certain that the first complete list of sieu is later than the Indian
nakshatras.” It would now seem that China probably borrowed from
India. With Buddhism a good deal of Indian scientific knowledge
travelled to China. Hindu astronomical instruments were introduced
into China and there were Hindu astronomers on the astronomical board
of the Chinese government. However, at present there is no proof o
contact between India and China at the time of the Yajur Veda, and it
is possible that China developed her system independently. It has been
somewhat hesitatingly asserted by J. Needham, well-known for his
generous view of Chinese science, that both systems, Indian and Chines
lunar mansions, were probably originally Babylonian. This is clearly
untenable because, although astronomy was studied in Mesopotami
there is no trace of such a system having existed there. If it had exist

. o e
it would have survived asan alternative to the zodiac, a much less pre

system for calculating the position of the sun by the heliacal rising 2?
setting of the stars. The nakshatra system, associated with the v° n
religion of sacrifices, not only continued to grow in India uninfluen®®
by the Greek zodiac when Alexandrian astrology was introduced,

182

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

it spread to other countries. The Sasmi Persians, the Arabs, and the
Copts in Egypt all marked the moon ou of approximately twenty-
eight days by that number of asterisms, regarded as “lunar houses.” Even
before the Arabs, this idea is found in a Hermetic Greek text. Since no
equivalent of the nakshatras has been discovered in ancient Iran, or any
other western country, it must be assumed that the Arabs had taken it
from Indian astronomy.”

The Indian theory of the great cycles of the universe and the ages of
the world is of older origin than either Greek or Babylonian speculations
about the “great year,” the period within which all the stars make a round
number of complete revolutions. But there is remarkably close numerical
concordance in these theories. The Indian concept of the great year
(mahayuga) developed from the idea of a lunisolar period of five years,
combined with the four ages of the world (yugas) which were thought
to be of unequal perfection and duration, succeeding one another and
lasting in the ratio of 4: 3: 2: 1. The last, the kaliyuga, was one-tenth of
the mahayuga or 432,000 years. This figure was calculated not only from
tough estimates of planetary and stellar cycles, but also from the 10,800
stanzas of the Rig Veda, consisting of 432,000 syllables. The classical
astronomers calculated the great period as one of 4,320,000 years, the
basic element of which was a number of sidereal solar years, 1,080,000,
a multiple of 10,800. According to Berossus, the Babylonian great year
Was a period of 432,000 years, comprising 120 “saroi” of 3,600 years
apiece,?!

R Although the Vedas have survived the onslaughts of time and climate,
It is common knowledge that many other works dealing with Indian
culture, including science and astronomy, have been lost. After the
vedic literature, the next existing scientific works belong to the early
oe €ta—a gap of more than a thousand years. During this period
ie cee © have been a great upsurge in astronomical studies. By
y Christian era, India had had a long period of contact with
ee and western Asia. Consequently, it was at this time that
Made its nee astronomy, filled with notions of Greek astrology, first
urya, es The five astronomical systems, the ae
ee a, Romaka, Paulisa, and Vasistha are summarize y
a, the sixth century astronomer, in his Panchasiddhantas.

183

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The Romaka and the Paulisa may well have been influenced by

Rome
and Paul of Alexandria, although some scholars maintain th

€ theory of
their independent growth. ‘The Paulisa, however, seems to have been g

purely astronomical, not astrological, work, and, if it was influenced by
some unknown Greek work, the influence cannot be defined accurately,
The Romaka is the more likely text of the two to have come under Greek
influence, but it is quite likely that the Romaka was composed by a Greek
who had settled in India and who was familiar with Indian as well as
Alexandrian astronomy. None of these systems, however, stood the test
of time, each being dislodged by a new one. Of the Siddhantas only the
Surya Siddhanta is extant. It has been described as “a pocket-book for
accomplished scholars rather than a textbook for students.” Although
the Indian astronomers had noticed very early, because of their fairly
accurate determinations of the sun’s position through their nakshatra
system, that the equinoctial and solstitial points do not remain stationary,
it was centuries later before reference was made to this fact in the Surya
Siddhanta, which speaks of a libratory motion rather than a rotatory
precession. It has therefore been suggested that this concept was a Greek
contribution to Indian astronomy. There are, however, many divergences
between the numerical elements of Ptolemy and of the Surya Siddhanta.
Hence, if there were some Greek influence on this work, it must have
been before the Ptolemaic period.

The Indian astronomer, Aryabhata, lived during the period in which
the Surya Siddhanta was composed. He was born in 476 and reputedly
completed his famous work, Aryabhatiya, at the age of twenty-three. A
concise and brilliant work of astronomy and mathematics, containing
the customary four sections and 121 couplets written in terse style, ie
Aryabhatiya must have followed a long tradition of scientific thought
to have attained the maturity it did. The Aryabhatiya, whilst mainly
agreement with the Surya Siddhanta, introduced certain concepts ot
own. Aryabhata’s new epicyclic theory, the sphericity of the eart i a
rotation on its axis and revolution around the sun, the true explanatio
of eclipses and methods of forecasting them with accuracy, and di
correct length of the year were his outstanding contributions: =
Arabs preserved the theory of the sphericity of earth, and Pierre d >
employed it in 1410 in his map, which was used by Columbus. Aryabha"

184

oer y

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

was one of the most original and brilliant Indian scientific thinkers, yet
his work did not exert much influence on Indian thought inside or outside

the country. His theory of the earth’s rotation remained isolated and no

later works alluded to it. It was the Surya Siddhanta that exercised the
greatest influence on those countries neighbouring India.
Varahamihira who wrote the Panchasiddhantas summarizing the
astronomy of the five Siddhantas, flourished in the middle of the sixth
century. In his work the Brhatsamhita (the Great Compendium), which
describes the motions and conjunctions of celestial bodies and their
ominous significance, he shows a mastery of wide fields of knowledge
and is thoroughly skilled in language and metre. In his two books on
purely horoscopic astrology, Brhakjataka and Laghujataka, the earliest
works of Indian astrology, he used many Greek astrological terms,
beginning with the Żora. It was Varahamihira who asserted that although
the Yavanas were Mlecchas and their astronomy inferior to Indian, they
must be honoured like rishis or seers for having originated the science
of astrology. He does not pay the Greeks any similar compliment for
their accomplishments in astronomy or mathematics. Speaking of the
Siddhantas, he observes that the Paulisa and the Romaka, which were
inspired by European treatises, were accurate, but the Hindu standard
work, the Surya Siddhanta, was more accurate. Indeed, the credit for
developing astrology as an extension of astronomy must go to the
Greeks. Even though it is a popular pastime of the Indian priesthood,
no astrological considerations are found in any vedic, Buddhist, or Jain
texts before the Christian era. During the period immediately prior to
the Christian era, however, it appears, some Indians were named after
stars, for instance Brihaspatimitra, friend of Brihaspati (Jupiter). But
ea later, under the influence of the Greeks, that horoscopic
SY gained immense popularity in India.

mit period of ancient Indian astronomy is considered to have
Toes (eS who was born in 598 and worked in Ujjain. i

cece rahma Siddhanta in 628, and the Khandakhadyaka, a ee
ine ae calculations, a 664. He rejected Aryab ata s
een ae € ac s rotation saying: “If the cas sees ae in
why do not tee ene and ayy trite route does it proceec ? k revole;
lofty objects fall?” Al Biruni, whilst criticizing him for his

185

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

unjust attack on Aryabhata, calls him the most accomplished of Indian
astronomers. He was, like his predecessor, an excellent mathematician,

By this time, Indian contributions to astronomy included the solar
system in which the earth and the planets move around the sun; the
lunar mansions or the nakshatras; the precession of the equinoxes and
the determination of its rate; the establishment of the lunisolar year; the
names of the week days; the calculation of the mean rates of motion of
the planets (bhaganas) based on continued observations; the construction
of an astronomical calendar on a scientific basis; the spherical shape of
the sun, moon, earth, and the other planets; the calculation of the mean
distances of the planets based on the theory of equal linear motion; the
rotation of the earth about its axis; the assumption of interplanetary
attraction in order to explain equilibrium; and the measurement of the
position of the sun, the latitude of the place of observation and time, etc.
with the help of the shadow of the gnomon.”

Several other eminent astronomers are known to have flourished, such
as Lalla and Bhoja. But it was not until 1150 that the Siddhantaasiromani
of Bhaskaracarya (Bhaskara) appeared, and after Bhaskara no appreciable
progress in Indian astronomy is recorded, although some popular works
were written. Changadeva founded a school in 1205 to carry on the
work of his grandfather, Bhaskara, but it was short lived. It appears that
Indian scholars devoted most of their energies to expounding the ancient
traditions, and, in marked contrast to their ancient counterparts, Wete
uninfluenced by Persian influences.

According to Burgess, there was “very little astronomical borrowing
between the Hindus and the Greeks ... since in no case do the numeri
data and results in the system of the two peoples exactly correspond: ;
Moreover, the Hindus possessed an important body of astronomici
knowledge no less significant than that of the Hellenistic astronom®®
long before they came into contact with Greece itself or with Alexandrian
science. But it would be unnatural not to expect intellectual stimulation
on both sides and exchange of ideas during a period of close contac
between India and the Western world. Whilst the tradition of astrono™

in India was ancient and independent, it certainly received impetus r
Alexandrian science. There are, furthermore, some technical terms n
both Greek and Indian astronomy which were borrowed from oe

186

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

other. For instance, aux of European astronomy is from the Sanskrit ucca,
borrowed through the Arabs; Greek pepton has become /ipfa in Sanskrit,

dehanos, drkana; trignds, trikona.

[rv 1s PRACTICALLY impossible to separate mathematics from astronomy
during the period of Arab ascendancy, for almost every mathematician
was also an astronomer or an astrologer or both. In India, mathematics
was also pursued in close connection with astronomy; hence, the
astronomical works of Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, and Bhaskara also carry
important sections on arithmetic and algebra.

Recent research has led to a greater acceptance of the theory of Indian
contribution to mathematics, a science far more advanced in India than
in any other nation of antiquity. Both ancient Indians and Greeks were
extremely fond of mathematics and both made important discoveries,
but their outlooks were somewhat different.2* The Greeks devoted their
attention to geometry, subordinating arithmetic, algebra, and astronomy
and looked upon magnitude not as number but as length, whilst the
Indians based their mathematics on numbers. They had a clear conception
of abstract number, as distinct from the numerical quantity of objects or
spatial extension, which enabled them to develop algebra and to make
more complicated calculations than could the Greeks.

; Whilst rigorous logic and systematic treatment are the outstanding
features of Greek geometry, boldness of conception, abstraction,
as and ingenuity are the main features of Indian mathematics.”
ee in a: science and philosophy interacted on each ainen
aes = one being fond of geometry saa symmetry in ie
Hindu i x n toe the consapiion of sunya, void or nothingness in
is sate: ae ca philosophies, suggested to Indian mathematicians
urged ae = utility of symbols. The philosophy of the void or sunyavada
tinging A world was neither real nor unreal, nor both nor neither.
iiec PEA T notion into the realm of science and ane
the soe se a oan, a shape, and a symbol must be regarded as one 2

the basis S a the history of human thought and progress, indee
just a Res eee calculations] The concept of sunya or zero is not
branches of Indi ical and scientific discovery, bui is deeply rooted in all
an thought, especially metaphysics and cosmology- Zero

187

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

is the transition point between opposites, it symbolizes the real balance
between divergent tendencies. It transcends all empirical data, and yet
it is the basis of all empirical data. It is simultaneously the All and the
None. It was originally conceived of as a symbol of Brahman or Nirvana,
expressing the sum of all distinct forms. In the third century B.C, the
eminent mathematician Bhaskara wrote a treatise dealing in great detail
with the concept of Nirvana. The term sunya occurs in vedic literature and
is used in Sanskrit literature in the sense of blank (abhava), insignificant
or negligible (zucca), incomplete (a-sam purana), and less (una). Most of
the ancient Indian mathematicians defined zero as the sum of two equal
and opposite quantities.”

For a long time it was believed in Europe that the symbol of zero
and the decimal system of notation were of Arab origin, but it is
now universally acknowledged that these passed from India through
the Arabs to Europe.” The numerals first appeared in Arabia in 830
and were written in Arabic from right to left and, according to their
position, counting from the right, they represented units, tens, hundreds,
thousands, etc. Whenever the number to be expressed lacked units, tens,
or hundreds, a point was placed in the appropriate place of the “word,”
which was the forerunner of the modern zero.

The mathematical implications of zero and infinity were never mort
than vaguely realized by the Greeks. Until the appearance of the Indian
system, the nations of antiquity did their fundamental arithmetical
operations by using symbols for writing numbers. They did not use the
zero symbol and their task was thus extremely tedious and limited. In the
Indian notation, unlike that of any other ancient people, any number ue
matter how large could be easily expressed. Instead of assigning a distin“
symbol to each number, Indian mathematicians introduced a place-value
notation, which made it simple to produce numbers of indefinite length.
‘The introduction of the Indian system led to remarkable scientific progres
first in mathematics and then in the broad sphere of the exact scienc®
Most of the great discoveries and inventions of the West would po
been impossible without a developed system of mathematics and i
in turn, would have been impossible if European science had remain?
saddled with the unwieldy system of Roman numerals. “The unkaow
man who devised the new system was from the world’s point of view,’

188

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

the Buddha, the most important son of India. His achievement, though

easily taken for granted, was the work of an analytical mind of the first
asi) »28

order, and he deserves much more honour than he has so far received.
Praise for the unknown scholar must be unreserved, but would it have
been possible for anyone, however ingenious, to achieve such heights of
analytical scholarship without a sound tradition and a well-developed
school of mathematical learning? Even if there is only scattered and
fragmentary evidence, it must be clear that to not only give rise to such
theories but to sustain and transmit them to other cultures required a
highly intelligent school of mathematical thought. Little is known of
the development of Hindu mathematics, but the few manuscripts that
are available bear ample testimony to the sophistication it had achieved
by whatever route.

Some scholars definitely date the origins of zero (sunya), and possibly
of place-value notation, to as early as ca. 200 B.c. because reference to
sunya is found in the Pingala-Chandah-Sutra composed at about that
time. There is general agreement that this system of zero and place-value
notation was in use in India in the fifth century a.D., and that the Syrians
and the Indochinese had come to know of it by the end of the sixth
century. The old system of numeration was still widely used in Europe
even as late as the fourteenth century; however, no work on arithmetic
using the old system has been found in India. The Bakshali Manuscript,
alleged to belong to the fourth century A.D., uses the new system,
giving general solutions of numerous mathematical problems on which
other texts are silent? The precise date, however, of this manuscript is
Uncertain, and, unless the date of the Bakshali Manuscript is definitely
Goan argument concerning the antiquity gi zə must remain
i aes Aryabhata, who wrote Aryabhatiya in 499, and who

a square and cube roots by the method in use today, must
ave either used a decimal notation with nine figures plus a zero, or an
abacus, Where em bol.

1 Fu Pty spaces represented the zero symbol.
the Indians es believes that the zero væ outer borrowed z

Wing the ee Babylonian officials, Cs more likely, was reinvente :
ieee = centuries of the Christian era by the Modiin scholars.
Spread R oes not question that it was from India that the zero

g the Middle Ages to Asia and through the Arabs to

189

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Europe.” It appears that the principle of local value was used in the
sexagesimal system found on Babylonian tablets dating from about 1600
B.C. Babylonian records from the centuries immediately Preceding the
Christian era contain a symbol for zero, which, however, was not used in
computation. But India was the first country to use the complete decimal
system of place-notation. What suggested the form for the zero is, of
course, a matter of conjecture; the actual form of the zero symbol y
from region to region.

It was probably in the twelfth century that Europeans learned this
Indian system through the Arabs. Leonardo of Pisa, also called Fibonacci,
an Italian merchant, who published his Liber Abbaci in 1202 laying the
foundation of modern mathematics in Europe, was educated in Barbary
where he became acquainted with the so-called Arabic numerals. Ofall
the methods of calculation, he found this to be the best.

In algebra, too, the Indians made outstanding and lasting
contributions. It is now commonly accepted that the Arabs were not
the discoverers, but merely the transmitters of algebra. Indians were the
first to recognize the existence of absolutely negative quantities. They
differentiated between positive and negative quantities by attaching to
the one the idea of “possession,” and to the other the idea of “debts.
‘The conception of opposite directions on a line, as an interpretation of
plus and minus quantities, was familiar to them. Being a science dealing
with unknowns, algebra could make definite progress only when a prop“!
symbolism was devised. The Indians, accustomed to abstract thinking
evolved the appropriate symbolism by using the letters of the alphabet
to denote unknowns together with arithmetical signs and suitable rules
for calculations. Once this symbolism was devised, advance was Tp!"
In the fifth century, for example, Aryabhata could express large number
by means of syllables, for Indian phoneticians had devised a phonett
alphabet including fifteen vowels, twenty-five stopped consonants, a
eight other letters. Indians evolved a sound system of extracting suas
and cube roots, wrote numerical co-efficients and algebraic equation»
evolved the rules of transportation of terms, classified equations acc" n
to degrees, and solved quadratic and indeterminate equations. loig
contributions in the field of the theory of indeterminate equation,
has been hailed as one of their greatest contributions to algeb™

aried

190

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

The Greeks, hampered by their emphasis on geometry and the lack of
proper symbolism, tackled indeterminate equations but with much less
success. In the seventh century, Brahmagupta (598-660) was the first
to discover the complete solution of the quadratic equation. His work
was furthered by Mahavira in the ninth century. In the twelfth century,
Bhaskara framed rules for finding permutations and combinations, and
invented the fraction form. The Arabs and later the Europeans made
great advances in algebra, but up to the end of the eighteenth century
this progress was along Indian lines. Although modified, the present
day algebraic symbolism remains Indian in all essentials. According to
Hankel, algebra was really invented by the Indians, ifalgebra is defined as
the application of arithmetical operations to both rational and irrational
numbers of magnitudes. “Both the form and the spirit of arithmetic and
algebra of modern times are essentially Indian.”*

Diophantus of Alexandria (third century), the first Greek algebraist
and the father of algebra in Europe, may have gotten his inspiration
from India. Whilst there is no definite proof of this, it is significant
that his work Arithmetica appeared quite suddenly, ran counter to
all previous mathematical trends, and was a far cry from pure Greek
geometry.** Without him, it has been said that there would have been
no Greek science of algebra. He introduced the idea of an algebraic
equation expressed in algebraic symbols and his treatment is purely
analytical and completely divorced from geometrical methods. In
addition to introducing various algebraic symbols, he also discovered
new. Properties of numbers and solved many kinds of determinate and
Tae equations, His system is very similar to that of Indian
ae z ae out that the first general solution of indeterminate

ake t : first degree, at by = c (a, b, c integers); is found in
ee > iS therefore incorrect to call linear indeterminate
ee a antine equations. Furthermore, while Diophantus still

Sita ional solutions, the Hindus insisted oe integer ae
equations 35 eer beyond Diophantis in admitting negative ae S
did take ; x au communication of thought from India to Alexane
and eae a _ evident from the fact that certain philosophica
Neop ie : octrines—for example, those of the Manichaeans,

, and Gnostics—show unmistakable resemblances to

191

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indian teaching, and it is difficult not to suspect Indian inspiration
behind Diophantus’ work.”

Whilst Indians made their mark primarily in algebra and arithmetic
the beginnings of their mathematics strangely enough are found in
geometry, the field in which they were least proficient. The Knowledge
of geometry began in the vedic age, and the earliest examples are foun
in the Sulvasutras (the rules of the chord which form part of the vedic
Kalpasutras). This was largely a practical and empirical geometry, dealing
with the exigencies of religious life and rituals.

Vedic altars and sacrificial places were constructed according to
strict geometrical principles. The Vedi (altar) had to be stacked ina
geometrical form with sides in fixed proportions, and brick altars had
to combine fixed dimensions with a fixed number of bricks. Again,
the surface areas were so designed that altars could be increased in
size without change of shape, which required considerable geometrical
ingenuity. Geometrical rules found in the Sw/vasutras, therefore,
relate to the construction of squares and rectangles, the relation of the
diagonal to the sides, equivalent rectangles and squares, equivalent
circles and squares, conversion of oblongs into squares and vice versi,
and the construction of squares equal to the sum or difference of two
squares.*” In such relations a prior knowledge of the Pythagorean
theorem, that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle
is equal to the sum of squares of the other two sides, is disclosed
In these treatises are also found a few interesting approximations in
terms of unit fractions. The fractions used are all unit fractions anl
the expression yields a result correct to five decimal places. The vedic
Indians knew the mensuration of the triangle, the parallelogra™
the rectangle, and the rectangular parallelepiped. The constant ratio
between the circumference and the diameter of a circle was know? $
the Indians later. They also studied the mensuration of the circle, ut
cone, the sphere, and the pyramids. ich

It is curious, however, that these geometrical constructions ya i
were remarkable for their age do not occur in later Hindu works, w e
appear to have disregarded completely the mathematical results 0 :
Sulvasutras. If the continuity of tradition had been maintained A
developed as in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the story of Indian g

192

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

night be different. Jainism, however, did encourage mathematical
mig ine
studies, and in its sacred books the value m = V10 is found.
$ ,

Indian
Indians were mainly interested in mensuration and practically ignored
nitions, postulates, axioms, or steps of logical reasoning. The

attainments in geometry fall short of those of the Greeks;

giving defi
possibility, however, of the Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria
who flourished at about the beginning of the first century B.C., having
been influenced by the Sw/vasutras cannot be ruled out. It is also possible
that the Indian mathematician, Brahmagupta, was familiar with Hero’s
work. Whilst distinguishing between approximate and exact areas,
he gives Hero’s formula for the area of a triangle as a function of
the sides, V p(p-a) (p-b) (p-c). Brahmagupta and later Mahavira,
however, made a remarkable extension of Hero’s formula by giving
\ (p-a) (p-b) (p-c) (p-d) as the area of a quadrilateral whose sides
were a, b, c, d, and whose semiperimeter was p. In spite of the Greek
superiority in geometry, it was Aryabhata who gave the usual
modern approximate value of x. The Greeks put it as 7 = 22/7 whereas
the Indian mathematician expressed it in the form of a fraction
T = 62,832 Later mathematicians improved this value,
20,000 already far more accurate than that of the
Greeks, to nine places of decimals. The correct
value of z was not known in Europe before Peurbach (1423-61).
Considerable work was done in trigonometry, and Indians were familiar
With some formulae not even known to the Greeks. In Varahamihira’s
yea ges are found notations for unit radius r = V10, sin 30 ;
A, SAME Gea oF : z
à table of e: a os a - o A
and used the Ga ae ei ted i ore
ce io of the chord of the circle to its diametr tolemy’s
aia ES pes onia diameter of 120. By using the half-chord
adian a 120, the Indians obtained a table of sines directly. Every
ofthe trigo 18€ On astronomy contained a table of sines, and functions
ean S nometric sine were clearly known and applied. The following
Siven in the Surya Siddhanta (ca. 400)

= 3.1416.

sin (n + 1) 0-sinn 0 =
sin n 0- sin (1-1) 0—sin n0- ye

193

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

used for calculating the tables of sines was not known either to the Gree
or the Arabs.** The Sanskrit term jya or jiva, a derivative from ardhajy
or ardhajiva, half-chord or bow-string, became first fiba and then He
in Arabic and finally sinus in mediaeval Latin.

Nothing like a true system of natural philosophy existed among |
the ancient peoples of Greece and India, although in their Writing |
many brilliant conceptions are seen. Hindu physicists, however, made
some comprehensive and co-ordinated efforts to advance hypotheses
about nature, matter, and energy, although they were closely linked
with religion and philosophy. The greatest weakness of Indian science,
as that of Greece, was its vision of physics as philosophy and not as
mechanics. Yet, it was an attitude which was not entirely unfruitful
Natural philosophy as propounded by the Indians conformed mainly
to three systems: (a) the Nyaya-Vaisesika, dealing principally with the
method of science and elaborating the concepts of mechanics, physics, |
and chemistry; (b) the Samkhya-Yoga, which confined itself to the |
principles of cosmic evolution; and (c) Vedanta and other systems, which
contributed little directly to the development of the physical sciences. As
early as the time of the Buddha, possibly even before him, the univers
was classified by the elements, and most schools of thought believed that
the elements, other than ether, were atomic. The Nyaya-Vaisesika school
of physicists especially propounded the atomic theory and “believed the
single atom to he a mere point in space completely without magnitude
They also analyzed the general properties of matter, such as Gea
cohesion, impenetrability, viscosity, fluidity, porosity, etc. They assert
that atoms cannot exist in an uncombined state, and they could not
believe matter to be infinitely divisible. The Jains regarded the atoms iv
only as infinitesimal, but also as eternal and ultimate. Umasvati analyze

i . y jon 0
in 50 the mutual attraction or repulsion of atoms in the format?
molecules.

‘The Samkhya system,
evolution on a scientific

in attempting to explain the process at P
basis in relation to energy as the principle, v
have foreshadowed Darwin in some ways, although its ideas, embo a
as they are in metaphysical language, are not easy to correlate ? 3
the modern scientific terminology of evolution. Almost every ser

c
conceived motion, both atomic and molecular, as underlying the pbj“!

194

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

f sound, light, and heat. Motion was defined somewhat

phenomena o S a i
as the change of position of a particle. Not only molar

as it is today,
and molecular motions were postulated but also the subtle motions

inside the atoms themselves. Both matter and energy were known to be

indestructible;
Bleeucsatathie transformation going on continually. Brahmagupta

foreshadowed Newton by declaring that “all things fall to the earth by a
law of nature, for it is the nature of the earth to attract and keep things.”
But the law of gravitation itself was not anticipated.

Great progress was made in India in mineralogy and metallurgy. The
mining and extensive use of gold, silver, and copper was undertaken in
the Indus Valley in the third century B.c. In the vedic period extensive use
was made of copper, bronze, and brass for household utensils, weapons,
and images for worship. Patanjali, writing in the second century B.C.
in his Lohasastra, gives elaborate directions for many metallurgic and
chemical processes, especially the preparation of metallic salts, alloys,
and amalgams, and the extraction, purification, and assaying of metals.
The discovery of aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid to
dissolve gold and platinum) is ascribed to him. Numerous specimens of
weapons made of iron have been excavated, probably belonging to the
fourth century B.c. Iron clamps and the iron stag found at the Bodhgaya
temple point to the knowledge of the process of manufacturing iron as
early as the third century B.c. The famous iron pillar in Delhi belonging
to the fourth-fifth century A.D. is a metallurgical wonder. This huge
io pillar 24 feet in height 16.4 inches in diameter at the

» and 6% tons in weight has stood exposed to tropical sun and

tain : A
for fifteen hundred years, but does not show the least sign of rusting
or corrosion.

and although constant, they were subject to changes in

as eas mentions that in the first century A.D. Indian iron and
Were at wing exported to Africa and Ethiopia. Indian metallurgists
cast prod own for their ability to extract metal from ore and their
ar ap cts were highly valued by the Romans, Egyptians, and Arabs.
“Damascu 2 cae cring steel, the secret of manufacturing the so-called
can be re as was well known." Although no definite judgement
the « A ed until rigorous metallurgical analysis has been made of
ascened” swords found throughout Eurasia, Edouard Salin,

195

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

an authority on the metallurgy of early mediaeval longswords

3 SUM Ec
5 coe à S B8ests
that “the marvellously skilful twisting and fagoting of thin ro

ds of steel
and iron of different qualities that produced the laminated Merovingian

blades was inspired by Indian Wootz steel, which achieved similar result
by crystallization.” Persians considered Indian swords to be the best,
and the phrase, Jawadi hind, literally meaning “Indian answer” meant’,
cut with the sword made of Indian steel.” That the art of metallurgy was |
highly developed in ancient India is further reaffirmed by the fact thu |
the Gypsies, who originated in India, are highly skilled craftsmen, and |
it has been suggested that the art of the forge may have been transmitted |
to Europe through Gypsies. Steel was manufactured in ancient India |
and it was being exported to China at least by the fifth century A.D. That |
the Arabs also imported steel from India is testified to by Al Kindi, who
wrote in the ninth century.”

Corresponding progress was made in the allied branches of science,
for example botany, plant pathology, and zoology. Indian achievements
in chemistry had some influence on the Arabs and the Chinese, although
in India, as elsewhere, chemistry did not begin as a branch of science in
its own right. In the beginning, perhaps, it was pure alchemy, concerning
itself with the transmutation of baser metals into gold. But it soon
became allied with medicine, metallurgy and the industrial arts. The
earliest evidence of chemical knowledge in India is in painted pottety
traced to the Indus Valley period. Chemical knowledge later pecan
an adherent of the Tantric cult. Herbs and plants with active healing
properties were deified. The juice of the soma plant, for instance, W
supposed to confer immortality; even in the Rig Veda it is describe!
as amrita (Greek ambrosia), giving immortality to gods and health ©
sick men. In Somarasa the dawn of Hindu alchemy is traced. But ie
during the Tantric period that the practice of alchemy reached its highest
development in India.” Nagarjuna, the reputed author of the r enow?? n
Tantric treatise Rasaratnakara, stands pre-eminent among the India
alchemists.’ He is also said to have written a treatise on metallurgy: dia

During the post-verlic period, when the medical system ofa
was rationalized, Indian chemists devoted their attention to pF H
medicines and drugs. By the sixth century they had succeed? F

producing many important aikalis (kshara), both for internal and oe

196

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

e acids, and metallic salts by processes of calcination, distillation,
use, 4 : $ EE

qiblimation, steaming, and fixing, described in Rasaratna-Samuccaya,
a valuable medico-chemical work. Medicines were classified into two

types: one promoting longevity, health, and strength, and the other

curing disease.
Even in technology Indian contributions to world civilization were

significant. The spinning wheel is an Indian invention, and, apart from
its economic significance in reducing the cost of textiles, is one of the
first examples of the belt-transmission of power. The stirrup, certainly
the big-toe stirrup, is of second century B.C. Indian origin. The ancient
blow-gun (nalika), which shot small arrows or iron pellets, may well
have been a forerunner of the air-gun which is supposed to have been
invented by the Europeans in the sixteenth century.

More important, however, is the fact that India supplied the concept
of perpetual motion to European thinking about mechanical power. The
origin of this concept has been traced to Bhaskara, and it was taken to
Europe by the Arabs where it not only helped European engineers to
generalize their concept of mechanical power, but also provoked a process
of thinking by analogy that profoundly influenced Western scientific
views.“ The Indian idea of perpetual motion is in accordance with the
Hindu belief in the cyclical and self-renewing nature of all things.

The ancient Indians were very interested in preserving life and caring
for the body. Consequently medical science, including surgery, developed
m India as early as the Indus Valley period and was widely studied and
ee medicine Was called Ayur Misti and is practiced even
fae S ee in Troni years it has been growing in popularity and i

mae ee with modern medical knowledge and techniques.

aie: : Scientists disregard Ayurvedic medicine asa relic of an
asa filly ia others defend it with an overemphasized patriotic fervour
partial validi x oe of medicine. Both are partisan views with only
exceptional] aes est. At its height, however, Indian medicine was
Unparalleled a end gave evidence of a rational, scientific Da
‘ncent India = di z civilizations. Indeed, of all the natural sciences F
With the Sa iane was ane most important. It was closely connecte

the logical ¢ ya and Vaisesika physics and was probably the basis of

Peculations subsequently codified in the Nyayasutras.*

197

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The beginnings of medical science in India have been trac
proficiency of the Indus Valley people in town-planning, sanitation
and hygiene. Representing the oldest surviving example
tanks, and interior courtyards. The main drains were cleared by lif

ting
. . o
large, specially made brick manhole covers, and the whole conception

indicates a remarkable concern for public health. In the vedic hymns, |

especially in the Atharva Veda, we find the healing art along with the
belief in demons of disease and magical rituals and remedial incant
to entice evil spirits away from the patients.” In these texts, however,
references to anatomy, embryology, and hygiene are found as well a
references to a great many diseases and plants with medicinal properties.
Vedic medicine, in common with that of other ancient peoples, was
primarily magico-religious. In Europe, as in various other areas, evens
late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, disease was looked upon as
a punishment from God, and the cure was sought through priests rather
than professional medicine.

Vedic Indians classified diseases by their major symptoms, such as
pain, emaciation, and fever, without seriously examining the possible
relationships between associated symptoms. They seldom investigated
the pathogenic causes of the diseases. Remedies were generally based on
plants, incantations, and practices of mimetic magic. Whilst there is n0
marked difference between diseases and demons in vedic medicine, an
no sense of diagnosis in the accepted sense of the term, there are frequent
indications of empirico-rational elements. Thus, magical attributes 4"
practical knowledge were intermixed, The vedic Indians closely studie
the human body and its structure as is evidenced by the richness ,
anatomical terminology in vedic Sanskrit. :

During the period of the rise of Buddhism in India, great prog
was made in medicine. Jivaka, a contemporary of the Buddha, is ae
with numerous and wonderful cures, especially for children. i
kings founded hospitals and appointed physicians for both me? $
animals. The canonical works of the Buddhists contain a pus

medical statements, and Patanjali’s reference to vaidyaka speaks Ne
development of medical science in the centuries preceding the Chas nt
era. The famous Buddhist university at Nalanda during the gale

198

ed to the |

s of town- |
planning, the Indus cities had baths, lavatories, drains, fresh Water |

ations |

Da
|
|
|

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

century comfortably accommodated ten thousand students in philosophy
and medicine. The principal doctrines of the Vedas later formed the
eneral basis of Indian classical medicine. Ayur Veda is the principle
source for texts commonly used during the first centuries of the Christian
era, but only a few works of this period have survived.

The four principal ancient authorities are Charaka (first-second
centuries A.D.), Susruta (sixth century B.C. to fourth century A.D.),
Vagbhata (ca. 600 a.p.), and Atreya (sixth century B.c.). These dates
are controversial and these are conservative estimates. None of the texts
(principally the Samhitas) produced during this period represents an
initial effort at systematic description of medical science; indeed all clearly
point to an existing tradition and confine their attention to collecting the
known facts and disseminating the knowledge gained. They are edited
manuals rather than works of individual scholars. George Sarton accepts
A. F. Rudolf Hoernle’s dating of Susruta and Atreya, as the sixth century
s.c.” Filliozat, having analyzed the evidence in some detail, suggests that
Susruta Sambita is a work of the last centuries before the Christian era,
and that Charaka Samhita could be slightly anterior to the Christian era.”
The medical works of Vagbhata, of which the Ashtangabrdaya Samhita is
best known, also probably appeared in the late classical period.

Atreya, a physician, taught at the Kasi (Benares) University, and
his younger contemporary Susruta, a surgeon, at Taksasila (Taxila)
University. Charaka was a physician living at the court of Kanishka and
was looked upon as the spokesman for and editor of Agnivesa, a disciple
a is of the opinion, therefore, that the famous system of
ofthe Seat after Charaka really belongs to Atreya, a contemporary
ep: a. usruta transmitted the doctrine attributed to eae
ee oa incarnation of Dhanvantari, the mythical holder o
i aa n sT of immortality. Like Charaka Samhita, Sai Samhita
ete ate traditions and sources. tese Samhitas are didactic
a eand verse of varied metres, and “are the products ofa fully
F ystem which resembles those of Hippocrates and Galen in

Me respects, and in others had developed beyond them”! The creative
Period of ancient Indi ici es Samhi f Caraka
and Susruta : ndian medicine closed with the itas o ;
medicine T and they have remained the standard works of Indian

surgery respectively. Later medical writers either imitated

199

>
INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

or elaborated on them. The most important texts which augmente

The forme
is a medical compendium and was very popular and used widely at the

time, having been translated into other Asian languages. It is consulted
in Ceylon even to this day. Indian tradition assigns this work toth
Buddhist patriarch Nagarjuna, but this is doubtful. The Amrtabriday,
is a lengthy medical treatise in four sections and it has survived only in
its Tibetan translation. Indian medicine, it would appear; progressed
rapidly during the vedic and Buddhist periods, and, after a period of
systematization, rationalization, and cautious advance, came almost to
a standstill in the Middle Ages.

Although based on experience and observation, the doctrines of
Ayur Veda are not empirical. A peculiar reflection of the general theory
of the Samkhya in its medical conceptions can be seen as well as an
enumeration of the elements (pancabhutas) which constitute the materia
content of the universe. The human body, the seat of consciousness
(cetana), is also composed of these elements. Of these five, space and
earth—which correspond to organic cavities and firm tissue—are inert,
and the remaining three are active substances. Wind, fire, and water act
in the body in the form of breath (vayu) located below the navel; bile
(pitta) located between the navel and the heart; and mucus or phlegm
(kapha or sleshman) located above the heart. These three elements a
counted both as constituents (dhatus) and as morbid elements (dosa),
and the doctrine is known, therefore, as either zrid or tridosha. It is tht
basis of Ayurvedic diagnosis and therapeutics. Health consists of a normi
quantitative relationship between these primary constituents, and if there
is an imbalance, disease, or dhatu-vaisamya, results.” ;

Nosology was highly developed and diseases were classified in thee
ways: according to the main organic element responsible for them
according to their anatomical situation, and according to the ats
the major symptoms. Susruta paid a good deal of attention to observing
the symptoms of diseases. n

Anatomy was also studied in this period in India. The vedic m
refer not only to the heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, and RE a
also to imaginary constituents of the human body, for example, A
(energy) and rasa (vital fluid). In the evolution of Indian anato!

the Samhitas were the Yogasataka and the Amrtahridaya.

è

200

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

facts and data concerning the human body were accumulated and
rationalized into various schools of anatomical thought, chief of which
were the schools of Caraka and Susruta. In their Samhitas they deal
with embryology and histology in addition to anatomy proper. The total
number of muscles in the body is 513, and the ancient Hindus described
500 muscles—400 in the extremities, 66 in the trunk, and 34 in the area
above the collarbone—and they were familiar with ligaments, sutures,
lymphatics, nerve plexuses, fascia, adipose tissues, vascular tissue, and
the mucous membrane of the digestive canal. Hindu anatomy included
some fanciful numerations of the parts of the body, such as 360 bones,
800 ligaments, 300 veins, 500 muscles, and 7 layers of skin. It must,
however, be pointed out that the Hindus calculated these figures by
including as separate bones the teeth, nails, cartilages, and prominent
parts of bones now known as “processes” or “protuberances.” Whilst
there were major gaps and errors in their knowledge of anatomy, it was
surprisingly accurate for the age.

The formation and development of the embryo was a subject of
considerable speculation and controversy in the various schools of
medicine. The question of prenatal influence, which is being given
increasingly serious consideration by Western physicians, was intensively
studied by Hindu doctors. They prescribed detailed rules for the care
of expectant mothers, who were to be given a pleasant environment,
kept away from excitement, and given appetizing food in moderate
quantities.

As early as the vedic period, Indians possessed considerable knowledge
$ eee The vedic term rasa has been likened to the “humours”

aie a reek medicine. Physiological processes Were regarded as

cs eee in nature at large, aah as bile acting in the human

Gan me re acts on water. The pang mover of life was the breath
of the Et = only a manifestation of the wind, the moving force
Sane ee edic physiology was a highly developed ee

the Re on the belief that multiple breaths circulate inside
as ae rough a system of internal canals. These breaths ve
ndian ee and this vedic concept became ana a

ttidosha, ae medicine. However, the pathological doctrine of the
included the notion of breath, did not appear as such

201

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in the vedic Samhitas. Breath not only governed respiration but al

other physiological processes as well. “Ancient India was f
pneumatistic theory by which all human activities both bodily

air originating in the wind, the universal driving power,” Alt
this doctrine was not codified and expounded until later, all its essential

elements were present in vedic texts, even to the assigning of technic] |

names. These and other Indian texts belonging to the period between
1000 and 500 B.c. refer to the concept that bile is of an igneous nature
and to the theory concerning the part played by the pituitary gland
which represents the aqueous element. The basic doctrine, upon which
subsequent Indian medical science was based, held that the breath, the
bile, and the pituitary gland became the three associated factors. Some
scholars suggest that Indian physiology was more comprehensive, and
it is a mistake to believe that it consisted only of the tridhatu or vital
fluids of the body. It is to this mistaken belief that the neglect of the
study of Indian medicine is mainly attributed.** The theory, however,
was far more profound, and also more ancient than that of the Greeks
Filliozat points out that the breath of life circulating in other parts of
the body was a common notion in ancient times but nowhere else wer
its technical details so precisely listed and systematized.”

‘There are striking parallels between the ancient Greek and Indian
systems of medicine, and because of this many Western writers have
suggested that the Greeks influenced Indian medicine. The possibility
of mutual influence cannot be ruled out, but it should be remembered
that whilst Hindu writers acknowledged their debt to Greek astronomy)
they made no reference to foreign influences in medicine. Nor a
Hindu medical classics, as pointed out by William Jones, conta? ;
single technical term which points to a foreign origin. On the cont s
Hippocratic doctrines such as the emphasis on prognosis, On dria
to physicians, and on diet and regimen in preference to med
the doctrine of the four humours and conception of the influence
seasons on their fluctuations and on dietetics, the quotidian, tertian, es ;
quarton fever, and several others, bear too close a similarity to ae
Indian practices to be coincidental *¢ Hippocrates (ca. 460 Be)
dissociated medicine from superstition, systematized the emp?

202

I the |

amiliar with, |

and mental, |
and all natural activities as well, were attributed to the play of puff ol

hough |

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

knowledge then available, and founded inductive and positive medicine,
was certainly familiar with Indian drugs such as pepper, ginger, and

cardamom. Whilst Hippocrates was laying the foundations of Greek

medicine,
extensive pharmacopoeia and intricate surgical operations. Hippocrates’

Indian medicine was already a well-developed system, with an

treatise On Breaths refers to diseases as processes in nature in almost the
same way as did the school of Atreya and the vedic texts on winds and
organic breaths. Whilst the general agreement between these doctrines
of Hippocrates and those of Indian pneumatism is unmistaken, and
whilst there are recognizable similarities in details of pathogenic
representations, differences do occur. For instance, whilst On Breaths
explains epidemics through spots introduced in the body by inhaled air,
the Indian texts contain nothing similar. If there was any borrowing
from India, “it has been in the shape of general ideas and it has been of
an entire part of the Greek medical text rather than that of the author
of the manual On Breaths acting alone.”” In explaining the similarity
between the Greek and Hindu traditions, Sarton admits the possibility
of mutual influence but does not exclude independent thought on facts
of common experience.°
Similar analogies are also noted between Indian pathology and Plato's
theory, as developed in the Timaeus, which is practically identical with the
Indian doctrine of the tridosha, and cites the same three elements—air,
fire, and water, or breath, bile and mucus. Whilst Plato’s exposition is
extremely rudimentary, his classification of diseases into three groups—
those caused by the disequilibrium of the elements, and those due to
phlegm and bile—is much in accord with the classical Indian doctrine.
“a ee of the goctene of the Timaeus may be found scattered
iene cae no Greek medical text has been found which grouped
doctin cic r P manner as Plato didi In CORES only in ee
to that of cee : a the som of a received Goa a pathogeny simi 2
the ee > Plato s theory of phlegm is quite similar to Ta o
and iene n of Indian medical men. Plato’s conception of bile, its ot
nature R agrees fully with the old vedic idea of the EF
eruption of i a such notions as haemorrhagic diseases caused by an
Veda. ie e ile into the blood are common to Plato and the Ayur
ermittent fevers enumerated by Plato were also known to

203

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the authors of the Atharva Veda, although their causes were expl
differently.

Despite these differences, the case for Indian influence on Plato’
doctrine is somewhat strengthened when it is recalled that Plato's belief
in metempsychosis and his theory of ideas are also closely parallel to
Indian philosophical doctrines. As the Indian doctrines preceded Plato,

tined

Greek influence on India must be ruled out. Moreover, although Platy |

does not mention his sources, his doctrine is closer to the Indian than
any contemporary Greek school.

That the Greeks were aware of and esteemed Indian medicine is
supported by contemporary Greek writings. Arrian, in describing
Alexander’s Indian expedition, points out that Greek physicians had no
cure for snakebite but the Indians had. Consequently, Alexander gathered
a body of skilful Indian physicians to attend him and his men. Another
Greek, Nearchos, also bears testimony to the skill of Hindu physiciansin
toxicology. It is certain that at the time of Alexander Hindu physicians
and surgeons were considered superior to those of the Greeks, even by
the Greeks themselves. Citing Megasthenes, Strabo says that “there
is a class of physicians among the Indians who rely most on diet and
regimen and next on internal application, having a great distrust of the
effects of more powerful modes of treatment.”°!

Indian medical knowledge, although considerable, was in many
respects imperfect. Indians realized the importance of the spinal cord
and knew of the nervous system but did not understand them fully
Even though they understood the functions of the heart, their ides
about its structure were rudimentary. Like Aristotle, Indian decai
held the mistaken conception that the heart was the seat of inteligen
and the organ of consciousness, although some scholars dispute this :
the grounds of the distinction between mana and Ardaya, two wo
translated as heart but having different connotations in Sanskrit. di
Indians, however, knew that the heart receives impure blood, sendsit"
the liver, where it is purified and then returned to the heart. The ce
and motor nerves were believed to ascend to and descend from the ae
Later however this misconception was corrected. Like Galen, the i
scientist of the second century, the Tantrists and Yogists in India £ act

to know the real importance of the brain and the spinal cord; in

204

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

the Tantric mystical text Shiva samhita describes the nervous system

more accurately than medical treatises. Indian scientists made valuable

observation on the
brain functions was limited. They knew the digestive system and its fluids
well and described its processes clearly.

masons ee made from symptoms and calculations of the

senses and sense-perception but their knowledge of

vital elements involved. Diagnostic methods were highly advanced,
and Susruta divided 1120 diseases into “natural” and “super-natural,”
taught palpation and auscultation of the heart, lungs, and womb, and
advocated the inspection and use of the special senses.” He also gives
avery recognizable description of malarial fever, which is attributed to
mosquitoes. A favourite method of diagnosis was urinalysis. Feeling the
pulse was studied with scrupulous care and thoroughness, and Hindu
physicians achieved exceptional competence in the use of palpation
long before Prayagoras of Cos, who is credited in the West as the first
physician to teach the value of the pulse in diagnosis.

Whilst notions of hygiene were mainly based on physiological theories,
treatment was based on observation. Proper diet and regimen were
carefully detailed and the use of drugs was subordinated to diets: baths,
enemata, emetics, inhalations, gargles, urethral and vaginal injections,
and blood-letting by leeches or cups. Some scholars such as Garrison
have interpreted a passage in Dhanvantari’s Sacteya as indicative of Hindu
knowledge of vaccination as early as 550; this was not known in Europe
until the eighteenth century.® Essential diabetes mellitus was recognized
as madhumeha (or “honey-urine”) and its usual symptoms of thirst, foul
breath, and languor were known.
ee (salya), was well advanced for the times. It is clan!
a ae a : e Mahabharata that surgeons regularly en
aand Pa the second century, agy had become a PAT
method re as the most important branch of medicine. The

owledgeo ee however, were too imperfect to give ae eae

hoviledge of r internal organs and of the vascular system oi t 7 : y
in other eg the human body remained primitive in ee a ia,
agged ing ee civilizations, where anatomy and? E
Concepts of z nical practice. Priestly eats confused i san e

atomy were weird and wonderful.”* The Indian surgeons

205

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

endeavoured to make up for their lack of precise knowledge of anatomy
by the concept of marma (a marma is a junction or meeting place of five
ligaments, blood vessels, muscles, bones, and joints),

organic structures
There were 107 marmas in all divided into five groups on the basis of
the seriousness of injury.
This concept made possible efficient study of regional anatomy, As
early as the third century B.c. there were hospitals in India and the
numerous rock inscriptions of Asoka testify to the popularization of
medical treatment of men and animals. Surgery flourished in these
hospitals several centuries prior to the Christian era. Indian surgeons
had attained considerable expertise in extracting the dead foetus,
recovering foreign bodies from body tissues, and treating different kinds
of inflammation. Their cataract operations attracted wide attention and
their mode of couching cataracts has survived to the present day. The
art of cutting and setting bones had reached a high degree of skill, as
had plastic surgery. They treated fractures and dislocations with a special
splint made of withes of bamboo, which was subsequently adopted in the
British army as the “patent rattan cane splint.”© Indian surgeons were
expert at the repair of noses, ears, and lips; and it was from them that the
army surgeons of the East India Company learned the art of rhinoplasty
(which means turning down a flap of the skin of the forehead to repair
unsightly nose defects),

Susruta describes a surgical technique of dissecting organs, after they
have begun to disintegrate in water, which makes him a forerunner
of Lacanchie, who introduced hydrotomy in the nineteenth century:
Susruta, marred somewhat by excessive scholasticism and classifications,
describes many surgical operations—hernia, cataract, lithotomy, caesarian
section—and about 121 surgical instruments—scalpels, lancets, 84%
scissors, needles, hooks, probes, detectors, forceps, and syringe
of which belong to modern surgical practice. These instruments We
properly handled and carefully les.
The sterilization of the wound b
examples of antiseptic surgery.
instruments, caustic, and caute
believed in helping nature to

more violent methods.

sa

prepared according to elaborate ™
y fumigation is one of the earliest kt o
Three surgical methods were pr eseribet
ty (agni karman), but as a rule the In ae
effect a cure, rather than in resorting ©

206

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

Incertain cases they employed anesthetics, even at a very early date.
Insensibility to pain was produced by the use of medical liquors, drugs
like belladonna, and Indian hemp (cannabis indica). The one operative
process the Hindus did not know was ligaturing—the method of tying
the end of a blood vessel. Whilst skilfully amputating limbs, they checked
haemorrhage by cauterization, boiling oil, or pressure. More than a
thousand years prior to Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “wandering friar” they
“out for stone.” The Indians even introduced a special method of tying
intestinal wounds. Since normal sutures caused the intestines to become
constricted, they joined the lips of the wound and had them bitten by
large ants. Later the body of the ant was cut off leaving behind the
mandibles as clamps which were acceptable to the human system. The
abdominal wall was closed by ordinary sutures. The Arabs later adopted
this system and passed it on to the West. It survives to this day, especially
on the Somali coast.*”

The Indians were particularly adept in teaching surgery. Having
realized the value of rapid, dexterous incision in operations without
anesthesia, they required the students to begin by practicing on plants.
The hollow stalks of water-lilies, or the veins of large leaves, or the blood
vessels of dead animals, were punctured and lanced. Soft fruits or leather
baas filled with water were incised or tapped as training for operation:
os hydrocele or any other disorder of a hollow cavity. Fresh hides of
animals or dead bodies were used in the demonstration of scarification
a bleeding. Flexible models of the human body were used for practice
bandaging. ‘The use of the probe was practiced on hollow bamboos.
an ee a this way the Indians were the pioneers of many

hing techniques in experimental surgery.
© ancient Indians undoubtedly excelled all other nations of their
m ees surgery. Their concern for physical health and their
Pure metaph 3 medicine must Contuse the image of India as a F of
very Hindu Bee otherworldliness. Yet, it may well have peed A is
their e, a life, their very theory of nature, which led to
Ortitous cone Be cine. They did not look upon the universe as a mere
tivities and ee c4 goms or as a puzzling labyrinth of purposeless
planation ee but as a cosmos capable of consistent

> an ordered sequence of cause and effect, a mighty whole of

time

207

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

which human beings were just one part. For the Hindus, Philosophy,
science, and religion were inseparable, being different aspects of real
knowledge. This belief led them to study edene not as an isolated
art but as a branch of their pursuit of reality. In classical Greece tooa
similar belief in the systems of nature—philosophy regarding the human
being as part of the whole of nature—had governed the art of medicine,
A number of the alleged treatises of Hippocrates reflect this attitude,
The philosophy of nature influenced medicine and began to transform
it. It was only later that an adverse reaction set in and medicine became
more of an empiric art.”
Not only human beings and animals, but plants are also part of
the cosmic immanent life-force, and all are interrelated. This concept
significantly conditioned the Indian attitude and had a bearing on their
accomplishments in pharmacology. The nourishment received from the
plant's vitality transformed itself naturally into the strength of the animal
and human body. Western intellectuals have often been surprised by ie
discoveries in plant pathology and crystallogeny of the Indian scientists
trained in their own traditional way.” A modern Indian scientist, Sir].
C. Bose (1850-1937), was able to demonstrate the pulsating life-force
in plants and their biological changes in his laboratories at Calcutta and
Darjeeling, with the help of accurate modern Western instruments.
He demonstrated the effects of air, sleep, food, drugs, etc., on pe
and established a complete parallel between the responses of plant an
animal tissues.” ;
‘The Indian pharmacopoeia, consisting mainly of vegetable abar
and herbs, was particularly rich and remarkable for its range and val
Susruta listed 760 medicinal plants, many of which came into the mai i
medica of the West and are still there. Special emphasis was given ti
aphrodisiacs and poisons along with antidotes for snake and animal pr
Garlic was praised in a hymn in the Bower manuscript found in Ta
and is now accepted as possessing the ability to check gastric peer i
soporific effects of Ayoscyamus and cannabis indica were known, an x
was the purgative effect of honey in the newborn infant. Mercury za
used as an internal remedy from a very early date. Even more signifie
was the drug rauwolfia serpentine, extracted from the leaves of a ee
the Himalayan foothills, which was in use from antiquity as a tranquiliz

208

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

esent day medicine, having extracted its active principle reserpine,
f hypertension and as a treatment for mental cases.

Pr
now uses it in cases O
Amongst other Indian drugs adopted for use in modern pharmacopoeia

are ishabgol and triphala. Turmeric (haridra) is used in Indian curry as
an antiseptic ingredient. Triphala, like other Indian drugs, was perhaps
known to later Greek authors such as Actuarius and Myrepsus through
the Arabs. What Actuarius calls ¢rypa/a or tryphera parva was Indian
friphala, both in name and the constituents of the compound, and was
recommended for use as in India.”

Apart from using plants for dietetic purposes, Indian physicians also
used them as electuaries, infusions, powders, ointments, and enemas,
as well as errhines; which were not commonly prescribed by Western
physicians. Indian physicians were not content with merely growing,
gathering, and compounding the various medicinal herbs, but they even
studied the effect of the seasons upon plants.

‘The Indians gave careful and thorough attention to hygiene and
diet. They studied climatic influences on various diseases and examined
hydropathy. Hindu medical texts recommend rinsing the mouth with
warm or cold water before and after meals, as well as at other times. The
use of oil as unguent for massage, for dropping into the ears, and for
rubbing into the soles was suggested for general physical fitness, as was
regular exercise. The anointing of the whole body before taking a bath
Was suggested for its invigorating effect. Rules pertaining to diet were
eae TE to various ailments and governed even the daily
filth ee a healthy person. Generally, half the stench was to be
aie > à quarter with water, and the rest left empty. RE
Alei, ae eae advocated, and massage was a favourite reme 7
the drinking Te mental ailments. Regular sleep and early ee a
aleen, ; a quantity of vaa daily at sunrise Ms elieve
Of these oe o ealth and long life. Indians even today follow many

endations.
ieee medical system is being scientifically studied and
nae a today, and many of its early drugs and medicines are
respected arn ca modern medicine. The physician (vaidya) ae
Standard. cf pro ee of society and was expected to maintain the very hig
sional and ethical conduct prescribed in medical texts.

Testo
ndi

209

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Hypnotism as therapy, according to Garrison, appears to have Originated
with the Indians who often took their sick to temples to be cured by
hypnotic suggestion. The Englishmen responsible for this technique in
England—Braid, Esdaile, and Elliotson—certainly got their ideas ftom
their contact with India. In India hypnotism had been practiced as a cure
in certain diseases, because Indian physicians devoted their attention to
the psychic as well as the physical side of life. In the Mahabharata there
is mention of the two classes of diseases, physical and mental, which
were interlinked and interdependent.”

Since animals were regarded as a part of the same cosmos as
humans, it is not surprising that animal life was keenly protected
and veterinary medicine was a distinct branch of science with its own
hospitals and scholars. Numerous texts, especially of the postclassical
period, Visnudharmottara Mahapurana for example, mention veterinary
medicine. Megasthenes refers to the kind of treatment which was later
to be incorporated in Palakapyamuni’s Hastya yur Veda and similar
treatises. Salihotra was the most eminent authority on horse breeding
and hippiatry, and Jadudatta gives a detailed account of the medical
treatment of cows in his Asva- Vaidyaka.

Indian ability to make surgical instruments, astronomical instruments,
and other scientific apparatus, as well as their meteorological
accomplishments would imply a certain competence in mechanical
devices and technological proficiency. Although not conclusive, there
are ample references in Indian literature to mechanical devices beginning
with the Rig Veda, the epics, and the Puranas, to the Meghaduta
the Rajatarangini, and the various Yantras. How far applied scien
was developed in India cannot be stated with any certainty, but the
Samarangana-sutradhara ascribed to Bhoja includes a brief narrative of
Indian technology and technonomy which makes it appear to be both
ancient and accomplished.

Whilst science developed in the West during the Renaissance
changing the whole character of society and attaining unbelievable
successes, India entered a mediaeval period and science declined. ‘The
reasons for this decline are complex and still largely speculative, because
investigation is seriously handicapped by the pathetic lack of informatio™
Various explanations are given, none of which is wholly convincing: Even

210

NATURALISM AND SCIENCE IN ANCIENT INDIA

in China where the scientific tradition was continuous and productive,
it declined during the mediaeval period. What is more surprising is
that in China, with all her emphasis on things material and concrete,
and her progress in the application of science to human affairs, medical
progress remained almost stationary until the present day, although the
Chinese knowledge of anatomy and anthropometric measurements was
exceptional. A possible explanation for the decline in Indian science may
be that it proceeded in the wrong direction by pursuing alchemy and
occultism. But the major reason must lie in the general stagnation of
thought and learning during this period in India and the disappearance
of the tradition of university and secular education. Despite its loss
of creative activity, however, Indian science continued to have some
influence over other regions such as Central Asia and the Indonesian

Archipelago.

211

Chapter VI

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

IT HAS BEEN claimed that India is the original home of literary fiction and
intellectual games. Whatever be the merits of this assertion, there is no
doubt that stories of Indian origin have long been told in distant lands of
Asia and Europe in a variety of forms, giving delight to countless people,
often without reference to or awareness of their sources. Centuries before
Kalidasa’s Sakuntala captured the fascination of Western intellectuals at
the end “of the eighteenth century, Indian myths and tales were widely
known, and the influence of Visnusarman, the mythical author of the
Pancatantra, the most famous collection of Indian fables, was widely
felt.

Once again it was mainly the Arabs, and the Iranians before them,
who transmitted Indian fables and folklore to Europe, either through
Turkey or Spain. From Constantinople Indian stories were transmitted
to Venice and Naples through trade contacts and thence they found their
way into the works of Boccaccio, Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, e
Sage, La Fontaine, Voltaire, and other famous Western writers. With
each story-teller the story assumed a new look, eventually reaching 4 stag“
at which it often bore only a feeble resemblance to the original. It we
not until Western scholars discovered Sanskrit language and literature
in the latter part of the eighteenth century that the Indian contributi?"
to the world’s fiction came to be appreciated, although its full extent
yet to be systematically assessed. This discovery of Sanskrit led to he
beginnings of comparative philology, the study of comparative religion

212

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

and philosophies, knowledge of Indo-European antiquities, and to the

recognition 0
in fables and fairy tales.
The story of how Indian fables reached the remote corners of Europe,

f parallels between Indian and Western literatures, especially

Asia, and even Africa is a fascinating study; for it is not merely a case of

single or isol
travellers from India, but of entire Indian books becoming the common

heritage of mankind through the medium of translations.

There are, of course, various kinds of folklore and folktales, and
scholars have devoted much effort to give them exact descriptions. At
present we are chiefly concerned with fables and myths. Although these
are somewhat interrelated and difficult to separate into their respective
traditions, it is generally accepted that the story which is embedded
in rituals, morals, and cults and which endeavours to explain some
natural phenomena or religious problem is a myth, whilst the story
which is intended to amuse, to instruct, and to point out a moral is a
fable. Myths generally deal with the deeds of gods or heroes and man’s
primitive beliefs and intellectual attempts to explain nature. Myth is
now commonly associated with the incredible or the wholly imaginary.
But this was not the original sense in which the ancient Greeks, who
coined the term, used it. Many ancient myths even describe the creation
and organization of the universe, the evolution of mankind, and the
emergence of civilization.

Despite the resemblances between the mythologies of the ancient
es differ widely in plots, motifs, and Geannens reflecting
Rha a of the nespeci covironment in which they oe
Hees n scholars hold divergent views about their scope an
oe a : out a century ago mythology was regarded as a a o.

espite ious manly those of Greece and Rome. Modern = lars,

tls a wide, Pan ofa close association between myth and 7 ce
Oi nd more accurate view of the subject. Bone sc o i

of little Ieee myths as hardly more than superstitious fairy tales
inmythsa RS P and historical significance. Yet, ey see
ets actual s ae able expression of human insight and spirit. ie
"nderstandin €, scope, and significance, the value of mytho ogy in
g the mental processes of early man, his beliefs and feelings

ated stories reaching other countries by way of merchants and

213

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

as expressed in writing and visual art, can hardly be denied. Goethe
maintained that the early peoples had their ideas in intuitions of fancy,
whereas modern men articulate them into notions.

Originally a fable was just a tale, a simple expression of man’s desire to
amuse himself, but over a period of time it was provided with a “moral,”
and became a vehicle for teaching a lesson in morality or wisdom in an
entertaining style. It has, therefore, acquired a twin objective, to amuse
and to instruct. With the surprising exception of the pre-Buddhist
Chinese, all peoples in all societies have incorporated in their literature
entertaining yet instructive stories.' Most fables are beast fables because
they describe imaginary adventures of animals who act and feel like
human beings. An explanation for this characteristic may well be the
close proximity primitive man had with wild and domestic animals, and
his dependence on them.

‘This distinction between myth and fable, although somewhat valid by
virtue of common concurrence, is not quite applicable to Indian tradition.
For whilst the ancient civilizations of Greece, Iran, Egypt, and other
countries have disappeared and their mythologies have been displaced
by well-defined and well-organized religious beliefs, such as Christianity
and Zoroastrianism, thus allowing their folklore to develop distinctly,
the Indian civilization and religion has been a continuous organic growth
which did not displace mythology. Again, the amorphous nature of
India’s religious beliefs, and the fact that her religion and philosophy
are inseparable from her literature, make it difficult to distinguish Indian
myth from fable, For example, stories found in vedic literature, such 25
that of Pururavas and Urvasi, can be both myths and fables.” The J ataka
tales, dealing with the birth stories of the Buddha, and the stories in
the Mahabharata, although rooted in religious culture, are considered
to be fables,

Sanskrit achieved excellence in most forms of literature. Sansktt
works on religion and philosophy are unsurpassed, and Sanskrit poet}
as contained in lyrical and dramatic works, compares favourably wi A
the most beautiful European works Although the qualities of Sanskrit
literature arg not well known in the West outside a limited circle °
specialists, 1t 1s outstanding in its imagination and perception, especialy
in gnomic poetry. The Sanskrit aphorism and didactic style of verse, best

214

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

illustrated in Indian fables and folklore, are most valuable contributions
1 a

of Indian literature.
Ancient Indian fiction is especially notable for its diversity of theme,

setting, situation, and characterization. Whilst some stories are filled
with a spirit of piety and religious devotion, others advocate a secular
and even naturalistic attitude towards life. There are realistic images of
noble sages, profound thinkers, detached men of wisdom, distraught
poets, restless wanderers, voluble astrologers, credulous peasants, greedy
priests, flattering courtiers, arrogant scholars, cunning traders, and a wide
variety of people, many of whom are recognizable today in Indian society.
Whilst some stories are pure flights of fancy, others provide a necessary
corrective to the excesses of imagination through their realism; and
whilst some are profound and substantial, others are simply interesting
and amusing.

India has often been characterized as the most religious country in the
world in somewhat the same way as China is described as pre-eminent
in porcelain, Japan in drawing, and the West in technology. Porcelain is
made throughout the world, but it is in China that the art bas reached
perfection. So in India has “man gone to the farthest limit of his religious
faculty.” Consequently, mythology is one of India’s richest traditions.
It is also one of the oldest, and, because of the common origins of
the Indo-European peoples, it is connected with the mythologies of
Bee Iran, and Italy. Such similarities of religions and mythical ideas,
o only limited: partly because the Greeks, having left ie
ready feces ral entered regions where more complex societies

ae : ed, and partly because Ga pEGas ne thesthemes of
meets ie myi noiegy were relatively simple.’ Reflections of the
and Indra ase SS can be seen in the tales of Hercules, Thor,
deified, ae i - Ercules was ason of Zeus by Alcmene, and e
cra ae escribed in the vedic yarns asa national mia e
i me ees ai the military nobility with the thun : g i as
and his thee => Heis, however, a wholly anthropormorp & 2
owever, he ic = ae borders on intemperance: Like asimple sai >
generous to im ae able and bellicose to his enemies, but goo a
asyus ete owers, helping them in war. His SES against e
omewhat reminiscent of Hercules’ heroic exploits and

215

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

there is some resemblance between Indra and Zeus. Both were principal
gods, and both had salaciously succumbed to the charms of pious mortal
women and impersonated their husbands to seduce them.

Kern has suggested a comparison between the ape king, who ina

Jataka tale makes himself a bridge over the Ganges for his following,
and a similar episode involving the Irish King Bran, and further suggests
that the function of the Roman pontifex may be pertinent.ć In fact,
similar features of the Irish and Greek mythologies can be explained
only by their common Aryan mythological heritage. Whilst little is
known of the mythology of the continental Celts, and Irish mythology
is fragmentary in form and distorted by its transmission through the
centuries, mythical conceptions and visions in Ireland are more archaic,
even if recorded much later, than those of Greece and India. The Celts
were known in the ancient world for their positive beliefs concerning the
survival of the soul, and their conception of a “happy otherworld” was
similar to that of the early Greeks. Of all the Indo-European peoples,
the Greeks and the Irish alone have fully preserved the early version of
this conception. Similarly, the myth of Oedipus, essentially Greek in its
mature construction, reflects an Indo-Aryan influence.

‘The myth of the “world-egg,” which was designed to describe the
origins of the universe, and which relates that heaven was formed
from the upper shell of the egg laid by Nyx and earth from the lower,
cannot be purely Greek in origin as alleged. It is also found amongst
the Persians, the Indians, and other peoples in varying versions. In
et the vedic Brahmanda is much older. The Greeks, no doubt, placed
we (vn Construction on an original Indo-European tale, whilst the
vedic by 2S Preserved the myths in their Primitive forms. Max Müller
observes: “Nowhere is the wide distance which separates the ancient
poems of India from the most ancient literature of Greece more cleatly
felt than when we compare the growing myths of the Vedas with the full
Brown and decayed myths on which the poetry of Homer is founded

‘The Veda is the real ‘Theogony of the Aryan races, while that of Hesoid

is a distorted caricature of the original image.” However, in the easly
Vedas the story material is limited, and, despite the fact that the vedic
hymns are voluminous in comparison with Homeric hymns, the latter
on the whole narrate a story more consistently. The fact that certain chie

216

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

ods were common to all of them would lend weight to the view that
g! >

the earliest h
many Gresk, Celtic, and Persian myths. The Sanskrit deva (god) is the

Latin deus, Greek żheos, Lithuanian dewas, Irish dia. The greatest of the
beings, who was heaven himself, was Diu. He is addressed as

ymns of the Aryans may have constituted the nucleus for

heavenly
Dyaus Pita in vedic hymns, he is Zeus Pater in Greek. Jupiter in Latin,
Tiusin German. The Greeks appear to have regarded him as the supreme
god, the giver of all things, and in some contexts, as just God. Vedic
ushas (dawn) is Greek eos; haritas, another name of surya (sun) is Greek
charites. The “Sons of Zeus,” the two Dioscuri, are compared to the twin
Asvins of Indian mythology. Some Greek gods, such as Earth (Gaea),
Dawn (Eos), Sun (Helios), and Moon (Selene), are also common nouns,
which may suggest that some vague divinity was attached to them from
Indo-European times. Therefore, one often notices similarities amongst
the names of the peoples, and sometimes the exploits of gods or heroes, in
the legends of the Indo-European peoples. Many of the outstanding tales
and motifs in several European mythologies bear so strong a likeness to
cach other that they can only have originated from a common prototype,
and these similar features are in common with the myths of India. Beyond
the proof of common origin, the Greeks and the Indians developed their
own independent and complex tradition in mythology.

‘The spread of Indo-European myths and legends, dating from a
common ethnic past, and the similarities amongst the mythologies
eg cae peoples are a distinct branch of study, which has
inea as the migration of fables in strictly historical times from
ate ee to Greece, and to the West, either orally or, ioe
R ae translations or BRON. The yo migrations: at
oftheir dese ee and their myths and the migration of the fables
tha =e ants—were separated by about two thousand yeas. Itis,
X examined ee that when the history of fables and their pees
relatively ae € COST Dict is somewhat more definite æ ere is

ee 7 material available from which to draw conclusions.
a Re to follow the passage of certain fables from one eee
is far older tae it must be pointed out that the art of oe : ng
One Collection t story. As a popular tale is copied and recopied rom
o another overa period of centuries and across continents,

217

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

it seldom remains intact, often undergoing even changes of plot and
characterization. Hence, to trace the history of a story, which, for
example, may have been transmitted from India to Persia and western
Asia, thence to Italy, France, and finally to Britain, must remain an
exceedingly complex investigation. Yet, sometimes resemblances between
various tales are so close, and their interrelation so inextricable, that the
hypothesis of common origin becomes inevitable.

Scholars have now been engaged in the study of folklore for more
than a century, and there is much material setting out divergent views
on the questions of the origin, dissemination, meaning, and nature of
folktales. Serious consideration of these questions appeared for the first
time in the second edition of the Grimms’ Kinder und Hausmärchen
(folk tales for children and the home, more usually known as Grimm's
Fairy Tales) in 1819. The Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, had
given little thought to the problem of the origin of folktales when they
issued their first edition, but between the first and second editions
similar tales from other countries had been published, especially from
Serbia, raising the need to explain the similarities and identical plots.
Also, the discovery of Sanskrit had opened up new vistas in comparative
literature. More than a quarter of a century later, in 1856, Wilhelm
Grimm suggested that the resemblances found not only amongst
the stories of nations widely separated by time and distance, but also
amongst those which are neighbours, consisted partly in the basic plot
and the delineation of characters, and partly in the weaving together o!
disentangling of incidents. There are, however, certain situations which
are so commonplace and natural that they occur anywhere, in the same
way as some thoughts seem to emerge simultaneously. Hence, it 1$
possible that the same or very similar stories arose in different countries
quite independently of each other. To Grimm the fairy tale was an
inheritance from the remains of Indo-European mythical poetry. He Me

s: one, which
others in the Indo-European language
from a common Indo-European antiq
dissected or broken-down myths, could
interpretation of its parent-

showed close resemblances w
family, was doubtless inherited
ity; the other, which contain®

be understood only by a prope!
myths. Perhaps an example of this is the

218

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, comprising more than six thousand verses
or half-verses, which was composed before 750. Certain of its features
which resemble those of Asian mythology can be more easily explained
by the common Indo-European past than by suggesting the migration
of ideas so far westward at that time, although the possibility cannot be
altogether ruled out.

With the awareness of the importance of Sanskrit at the beginning of
the nineteenth century, many eminent European scholars and linguists,
especially German, took an exceptionally keen interest in the problem
of reconstructing the parent speech from which most of the languages of
India and Europe descended. Although many details remained unsolved,
the overall framework with its various subdivisions had become clear
by the middle of the nineteenth century. The general approach to the
subject was well illustrated in the works that followed, such as those of
Max Müller, Angelo de Gubernatis, John Fiske, and Sir George Cox,
who all stressed that the parallels in folklore and myths from Ireland to
India were principally an inheritance from a common Indo-European
past, and traced their origins to the Rig Veda. For instance, the trick of
dragging stolen cattle backwards into their place of hiding without leaving
behind their footprints to escape detection appears again and again in
the mythology of different Indo-European peoples.®
ae some scholars were exploring the Rig Veda and its influence on
a : Others were also finding India the origin of folktale tradition
pester > point of view. As early as 1838, Loiseleur Deslongchamps
ae a European folktales could probably be traced to India, but
logical a ; or Benfey who took up this suggestion and carried it to its
of hig ae usion. Although he had already advanced this view in some
kede a odit was expressed with clarity and authority in the

aller i to his edition of the Pancatantra in 1859. Whilst Benfey
Moen most of the animal fables originated in the West and were,
olktales ee transformations of the so-called Aesop's Fabes, he believed
een in Ree come from India. He found fairy tales which had
and the Veep In Indian works such as the Pancatantra, the Sukasaptati,
ahisi? He pancavimsati, in later Indian languages referred to as Baital
impression Sees out, however, that some animal fables give the
aving an Indian origin, for many considerations indicated

219

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

that the Indians, well before their acquaintance with the animal fables of
Aesop, had invented a good many stories of a similar kind. The difference
between Indian fables and Aesop's is that whilst Aesop’s animals act in
conformity with their own nature and characteristics, the Indian fables
treat the animals as if they were men masked in animal form. When
the essentially didactic nature of the animal fable, which is exclusively
an Indian characteristic, and the Hindu belief in the transmigration a
souls are taken into consideration, the theory of Indian origin of fables
is further reinforced.

Benfey’s arguments were very convincing. To each story from the
Pancatantra he appended exhaustive notes elaborating and illustrating
his opinion with scrupulous and profound scholarship. Jacob Grimm
agreed with him and the students of folklore in the nineteenth century
generally accepted the position, although there was some criticism. For
example, it was claimed that too much reliance was placed on literary
sources and that insufficient attention was paid to the actual movement
of fairy tales from one nation to another.

Another important scholar in the field was Reinhold Köhler (1830-
1892), who published annotations of the main collections of European
tales, and thus helped to clarify the mutual relationship of the various
tales and motifs. He was, however, mainly an editor and commentator
and was little concerned with theories of historical origins. A strong
supporter of Benfey’s basic ideas was Emmanuel Cosquin (1841-1921),
who published an extremely valuable series of monographs. His Contes

populaires de Lorraine (1887) is regarded as the French equivalent
Grimm’s Fairy Tales. He studied numerous motifs and tales, always
emphasizing their relationships with Indian parallels which he wa
convinced represented the Originals. His studies paved the way for more
definitive work by other scholars, Cosquin, however, was also impress“
by the antiquity of Egyptian folklore, and he felt that even though a!
tales may not have originated in India, India had certainly served as the

great reservoir for tales of varied nationalities which, in turn, flowed out
all over the world.

The Finnish school, distin
a fairy tale was analyzed ac
through all available sources

eae ; by
ct in its method of investigation 2o )
: S 3 el
cording to its events and motifs, yei
item by item and tried to find the origi"

220

la eee

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

tale. They emphasized the fact that folktales may be
people, and that the possibility cannot be ruled out
have spread from various centres. But whilst

parts of each fairy
composed by any
that a variety of tales may
it was theoretically possible for folktales to originate in any country,

y attributed most of them to India. It was suggested that there were

the
ams of fairy tales” and “waves” in which everybody participated

“stre
because every listener became a narrator afterwards.

In the 1870's, however, a reaction against the theory of folklore diffusion
get in, Reinforced by the Darwinian concept of organic evolution, the
British school of anthropology gave rise to the anthropological theory. E.
B. Tylor claimed in his book Primitive Culture (1871) that a number of
customs, ideas, and religious convictions could be traced in like form in
all primitive and civilized people, so that similar intellectual prerequisites
producing similar forms of fairy tales must be assumed.

Andrew Lang insisted that folklore was close to the surface of civilized
life, being the remains of ideas as old as the stone elf-shots and older
than the cult of bronze. He detected in proverbs, riddles, nursery tales,
and superstitions, the relics of a stage of thought which was dying out."°
In support of his view that folklore beliefs were not peculiar to any one
tace he cited the story The Mystery of the Pezazi, which was current in
avery similar form in Ceylon and Mexico. The curious coincidence of
the “midnight axe” described in both versions was held by him as the
expression of a common state of superstitious fancy, not an indication of
common origin. If Lang had known there was considerable evidence of
ae ae between southern Asia and ancient America, he would

ave found this parallelism so striking.
ee ieee anthropological theory asserted that the fairy tale
Pica soe to all primitive peoples, and thus had the eee
tone ee a opment. He used the discovery of Egyptian folkt a
sometimes es ite mentioned in Herodotus and Homer in his

TR atirıcal opposition to the theory of Indian primacy in folklore.
xi pointed out many primitive ideas in modern folktales and

E8ested that these tales had survived from a very ancient time. Lang's
Position of arallel d TVE CET, Iy ; aa
it woul te evelopment of culture everywhere is untenable for

est itself in analogous tales. Without undermining the

consid,
erab a : an
le value of Lang’s reasoning and conclusions, his interest

221

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in the contributions of primitive man may have been Somewhat oye,
pronounced because of the remarkable work with the concept of organic
evolution done by British anthropologists during the second half of the
nineteenth century.

Besides Lang, other scholars had come to take an interest in the belief
and practices of primitive peoples and begun to collect and compare
data, pointing out various parallels in development. ‘They attempted
to show that all mythological stories said the same things in different
ways. ‘The most famous example is Sir James George Frazer’s Golden
Bough originally published in twelve volumes. A remarkable collection of
logically arranged data on primitive beliefs and practices, Frazer’s work
attempted to show that story motifs, practices, and beliefs were almost
identical amongst the American Indians, the natives of Australia, and
those of South Africa. The assumption was that all peoples had gone
through the same stages of culture in a direct line of evolution and
that in each stage they reacted to the world and expressed themselves
in the same way. In higher stages there may be survivals of the earlier
stages. This theory of the direct and parallel evolution of cultures and
of survivals in culture, as illustrated by Lang and Frazer, and later by
J. A. MacCulloch in The Childhood of Fiction, is undoubtedly of great
interest, but it neglects to consider that culture is a matter of historical
development for each people who are subjected to a wide variety of
internal and external influences. Except in the vaguest and most gener al
sense, therefore, parallelism between different peoples, especially if they
are far removed, must remain an uncertain and untenable inference. At
best, it could be only a rare coincidence. ‘This theory also underestimates

the role which the diffusion of the elements of tribal life has p layed
and pays little attention to the great comm

peoples within particular “cultural areas.”

tales of distant lands without adequate con

of their being conne i iti an
g cted in human tradition, could hardly sustai

theory of independent and parallel growth. The value of the work dont
by Frazer and other scholars, however, is considerable because it not%

: A states es
a vast number of Interesting similarities in narrative patterns and po
important questions.

There were three principal theories about the origins of folktales: the

t

unity of interest a

ete are

Noting similarities 1n
: $ iji

sideration of the possibil ty

222

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

thological school, mainly German, subscribed to the view of common
my

Indo-European ancestry
mainly British, advocated the parallel development of culture all over

the world; the Indianist school traced every tale to India. All of these
theories were partially correct and incorrect. In spite of divergent theories,
however, the doctrine of integration prevailed, and the migration of
folktales has been like the rings formed when a stone is thrown into a
pool, spreading equally in all directions. The mythological school, like
the anthropological school, was not primarily interested in how tradition
was diffused from one place to another, or from people.

Modern anthropological research has led to revisions in the
generalizations about primitive man, and the realization that many of the
resemblances in the cultures of primitive peoples are not real identities
either from the psychological or historical viewpoint. In fact, systematic
examination of the geographical and historical factors clearly reveals a
particular culture being continually influenced by its neighbours. The
problem of the dissemination of cultural traits, including the folktale,
is admittedly a complex one. Examination of the folktale involves the
reconstruction of the original story form by unwrapping the layers
imposed by time and locality and then tracing its passage through
history. Moreover, the fact that the Benfey school and the Finnish
school maintain their “Indian theory”; the fact that the question as to
Tones between the fairy tale collection of Alf Laila Wa Laila
ate fe g ousand Nights and One Night, or the Arabian Nights) and
anthropological es has not yet been answered; the faetthas the
falas pie cs > eory becomes problematic in light of Peuckert's a
with the ob A aa all fairy tales dealing with magic must be Sees
stone a and use of herbs and plants; and finally, the fact at
Suggest, amon yo archetyes has not been effectively dealt with must

ie a things, the complex nature of the problem. :
ababharata a ian fables are found in the vedic literature, a
ancatantra r es and the famous collections known as the
Categories: thos the Hitopadesa. These collections fall broadly into two
the Jatakas Be oe for the purpose of religious preaching, such as
in Prakri S x e other storybooks of the Buddhists and Jains written

ose intended to inculcate political doctrines and worldly

and inheritance; the anthropological school,

i

223

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

wisdom, and to entertain, written Sanskrit, such as the Pancatantra, The
oldest beast fables known in India occur in the Chandogya Upanishad, 1
in which animals are introduced as actors and speakers. There are other
stories dealing with the metamorphosis theme representing the gods in
the forms of animals associating with men. Indeed, there are even earlier
illustrations of this form of story: for instance, the story of Manu and the
fish, that of Indra’s metamorphosis into a bird, and the Rig Vedic simile
of the sun as a vulture or falcon hovering in the air.'? The theory of the
transmigration of souls, applied equally to both man and animal, must
have favoured the development of this form of tale. Indeed, the Buddha
himself{—during the period of his previous incarnations—appears in the
guise of various animals in the old Jatakas.

‘The great variety of anecdotes with animal heroes throughout world
literature is quite impressive. For the tellers of folktales everywhere and in
every age, the human and animal worlds are never too distinct. The idea
of a hunter disguising himself in the skin of an animal is quite common.
This ambiguity extends even to mythologies, and as a consequence many
deities appear one day in human guise and the next in the image ofa
beast. Folk tradition is generally very careful in its choice of animals
selecting only those that can make their actions appear as nearly human
as is possible, and, of course, keep their character constant. Thus, the
jackal is crafty, the hare is swift and wily, the cat is a hypocrite, and the
lion is strong but gullible.

Whilst Indian fables and tales date from remote antiquity, they we
perhaps, not used for a definite purpose and not reduced to a litera)
form until a much later period. The ancestor of the popular tale may
have been such vedic akhyanas as are preserved, for instance, in the Rig
Vedic dialogue-hymn of Pururavas and Urvasi, or in such early legend
as that of Sunahsepa. But it is going too far to seek the origin of y
beast fable in the Rig Vedic hymn” in which the chanting Brahman’
are compared to croaking frogs who are portrayed as more magic
than didactic, or in the upanishadic parable of the dogs searching oY
a leader to howl for food for them, bg
allegory. It may also be somewhat questionable to clearly identify i"!
Mahabharata fables a distinct literary form although the motifs off i
clever jackal, the naughty cat, and the greedy vulture are employed 3

224

i ire of
which may have been a satire ©

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

oral instruction. All these, as well as the Jataka technique of illustrating
mote

the virtues of i
pasis for the well-developed beast fable in the Pancatantra. In its mature

om the simple parable or beast tale by bringing out

Buddhism by means of beast stories, may have been the

form, it departed fr
the latent didactic motive clearly and deliberately and setting it artistically

ina framework of connected stories in which the thoughts and deeds of

men were attributed to animals.

Itis not possible to neatly separate the Indian fable from the tale. The
Pancatantra, although mainly composed of beast fables, also includes
folktales and stories of human adventure, whereas the tale, as represented
by the Bribatkatha, sometimes contains elements of the fable and a
didactic motive." However, the beast fable diverged considerably as
all independent literary creation from the popular tale, which was not
didactic and in which the stories of human life and popular ideas in myth
and magic found expression.

The Jatakas are a collection of over five hundred stories, arranged
in twenty-two nipatas (sections). They reflect an aspect of the literary,
as well as popular, taste of the land. Each story gives an account of an
incident in the previous existences of the Buddha as a Bodhisattva. These
stories are held by the believer to be true, but they are really an assorted
collection of popular folklore and historical tradition in the form of
fables, fairy tales, riddles, puzzles, legends, humorous superstitions, and
ami of the social life of ancient India. At some period in antiquity,
stanly well before 300 s.c., it had become customary to identify the
ee each of these popular stones with the Buddha himself
Indeed. je a a and this identification Wes not entirely imaginary.
“the er a ; y due to the growth of this idea that there is preserved
of folklore E ete, the most authentic, and the most ancient ee
T e ae collection entirely unadulterated, as mo =

Scan a : en are, by the inevitable process of passing See a
Person, an ex . ee each story, une Buddha narrates, although ae infi t
its mor ae P ae of a past life to explain a present incident s ona
the Buddha, seh ae Because ühese tales bear upon the previous lives o
“We not ex ike atc fix their origin in a period after his death. Yet, they
ifthe ud hee how the tales can be attributed to men of later times

were the actual narrator of each story. In fact, this mode

225

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of telling tales was an old one; it was not difficult to replace a sage ora
wise man with a Bodhisattva. Any story, however secular or frivolous,
could easily be transformed into a Buddhist tale by having its Principal
character identified with the Bodhisattva. There were several diverse types
of Jatakas and in the early forms there was no place for Bodhisattvas,
They were largely folk literature in which beast fables and fragments of
historical tradition, as well as tales of wisdom, had been collected for
instructive or didactic purposes.

The Jataka tales, however, have a definite religious significance,
The only secular surviving collection of beast fables in Sanskrit is the
Pancatantra, which exists in various versions and has, perhaps, a more
interesting history than any work in world literature. Over two hundred
different versions of the work are known to exist in more than fifty
languages, and about three-quarters of these languages are not Indian.“
Its range has stretched from Java to Iceland. As early as the eleventh
century the Pancatantra had reached Europe, and by the end of the
sixteenth it had been translated into almost all the major languages of
Europe. Few books in history have been translated into so many languages
and it is doubtful if any secular book has had a wider readership.

All the versions emanate from a single original text which has not
been preserved. Its earliest recensions have been classified into four
main groups, each representing a diversity of tradition. The first is the
lost Pahlavi version from which the old Syriac and Arabic versions
were derived, and it was through this source that the Pancatantra, in
a somewhat modified form, was introduced into the fable literature of
Europe. The second is a lost northwestern recension from which the
text was incorporated into the two Kashmirian Sanskrit versions °
Gunadhya’s Brihatkatha, made respectively by Ksemendra and Somadevi
Clee century). The third is the common lost source of the Kashmirian
version, entitled Tantrakhyayika, and of the two Jain versions the
Simplicitor Text, well known from the Buhler and Kielhorn edition
and the Ornatior Text of Purnabhadra (1190), called Pancakhyan™
‘The fourth is also the source of the southern Pancatantra, the Nepales
version, and the Bengali Hitopadesa. Of these, the Tantrakhyayika best
represents the original. The nature and extent of the transformation ©
which the work was subjected in course of time make the problem e

226

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

nstruction extremely complicated, but the close examination of the

reco >
de by Hertel and Edgerton succeeded to a

yarious existing versions ma oyi
great extent in recreating the original Pancatantra.
” From the very beginning the Pancatantra had a deliberate literary
form, being the instruction in the art of statecraft given by a learned
scholar, Visnusarman, to three unintelligent but impressionable young
princes. Its theme is not morality but practical wisdom in the affairs of
life. It passed as a text book of artha (worldy wisdom) or niti (polity),
which is one of three objects of human desires for the Hindus—the
other two being dharma and kama. It repeatedly quotes verbatim from
the celebrated Indian text on polity, the Arthasastra: “Like that work,
it is designed especially to advise rulers in the arts of government. It is
then, a ‘Mirror for Magistrates’ or ‘Fiirstenspiegel.””” It teaches the art
of being an accomplished, successful, and happy social being; it does
not concern itself with the possibility of living as a saint or an ascetic.
Whilst insisting on the misery of poverty—‘ twas better to be dead than
poor’—the Pancatantra does not glorify the acquisition of wealth. Money
isa means to an end, to be able to live—“a Man to thrive must keep alive.”
Once security and freedom from worry are obtained, real joy comes from
resolute and wise action, from contact with friends, and especially from
the wor thy exercise of the intelligence. Niti is the integrated development
of the powers of man, in which security, prosperity, resolution, friendship,
meee are harmoniously blended to produce the utmost joy of
o a is therefore closely related to the Nitisastra and
is aa goa not directly opposed to the Dharmasastra. This
ilomacy 3 eee even if the beast fable stresses the practical art of
ieee meee affairs, rather than the strict code of opaan
YEDA rarr oe polities of profit at the expense of morality. .
tParitsitakaritay, oe ED CRA, samdbivigraha, ea
With how cen which it derives its title, deal ee y
of war and aoe n alie are lost; how they are won; the princip es
ach part is Rey, Ow gains are lost; and the dangers of hasty action.
à perfect a oe complete in itself, and together they k
Prose narrative at € stories are recounted in a simple and grace
‘entimental di out attempting to create elaborate stylistic effects or
Sressions. Its technique of inserting a number of stories

227

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

within the framework of a single narrative is distinctive, although thi,

feature of combining a number of fables is also used in the Popular tale,
In bringing together unconnected stories, considerable ingenuity has been
employed to achieve unity and completeness of effect. The numerous
general gnomic stanzas which punctuate the narrative are dictated

the didactive motive of the fable.

D

Originally intended as a work for imparting political wisdom to
princes, the Pancatantra is now principally a storybook in which t e
story-teller and the political teacher are unified in one personality,
At times the charm of story-telling is subordinated to the professed
practical objective, and the tedious exposition of polity prevails over
simple and vivid narrative. Such instances, however, are not numerous,
Discrepancies doubtless appear in the different versions, but most of
the stories are well and amusingly told, showing the author as a master
of narrative, as well as a perfect man of the world, who never departs
from an attitude of objective observation and whose considerable fund
of wit and humour is often disguised behind his pedagogic seriousness.
Because of its beauty and its wisdom the Pancatantra is one of the best
storybooks ever composed,

In the absence of the Original text it is impossible to determine the age
of the Pancatantra with accuracy. The original version could have been
composed any time between 100 B.c. and 500 a.p. However, it is certain
that by the middle of the sixth century A.D. it had acquired wide fame
even outside India. Its popularity within India is well illustrated by the
various abridged versions of it available from Nepal to South India.

The Pahlavi translation was made by Barzuyeh (or Burzoe), the
physician of the Sassanian King Khusru Anushirvan (537-79), by rojil
command." This translation was obviously made from a Sanskrit version:
Soon after, in 570, it was rendered from Pahlavi into Old Syriac y
Bud, and his version, although imperfectly preserved, is still extant It
pis thus virtually contemporary with the lost Pahlavi version. The B"
translation has been edited and translated twice into German by moder"
scholars. Almost two centuries later, about 760, the Pahlavi version a

translated into Arabic by Abadallah ibn al-Muqaffa under the title Kalil
wa Dimna. ‘The title appears to have been taken from the names $ 7
two jackals, Karataka and Damanaka, who play prominent parts i

228

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

| riginal Sanskrit version of the Pancatantra. The diffusion of translations
origini

| from the 4 : f

| source of numerous versions in several continents.

Comparatively few Indian fables reached the West before the

| tenth century. Apart from those contained in the translations of the

there were stories handed down by oral tradition. In the

n on was much wider still, and the Arabic version became the

f Pancatantra,
tenth century, India became better known to the Islamic world, and from

then on literary sources became more important than the oral tradition.
Indian scientific and literary works were now translated into Persian
and Arabic, were diffused all over the Islamic world in Asia, Africa, and
Europe, and, because of the frequent conflicts between the Muslims
and the Christians, also throughout the Christian West, particularly the
Byzantine Empire, Italy, and Spain.

Hindu and Buddhist classical works had spread earlier to those
countries and regions in the vicinity of India, primarily because of
Buddhist missionary expansion. With this literature, from about the first
century on, tales and fables penetrated without interruption into China
and further east. They also reached Tibet and from there travelled with
Buddhism to the Mongols, who adapted them to their own language with
many changes and modifications. In addition to the Vetalapancavimsati
and the Vikramacaritra, it is certain that the Mongols were also familiar
um a third collection of stories, the Sukasaptati. Considering that the

ongols were in power in Europe for almost two hundred years, it seems
ee ae aoe that many of these stories reached Europe through
ota, ‘ a introduction to his tansion of the Kerala pa rea
Vetala ace ee out that there is a Mongolian version of many of ne
ao o e language of the Kalmucks—a Mongolian race living
known in a ae X iddhi-Kur. This Mongolian version became
in the Ree es Benjamin Bergmann sbook Nomadic Wanderings
is being bors : pas but was not identified until 1857 by Benfey
version of the o Sees India® A Mongolian translation of the ae
ftikhar uddin oe Kalila wa Dimna, is ascribed to Malik Sai

mie Get 0 anmmadbin Abu Nasr, who died in 1280; Pack’
the tenth or FS translation was made from this Arabic version in
translated it oe century, and in about 1080, a Jew, Simeon Seth,
o Greek entitling it Stephanites kat Tchnelades, and stating

229

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in the Preface that the book originally had come from India. This, in
turn, led to an Italian version by Giulio Nuti in 1583, two Latin Versions,
one German, and various translations in the Slavonic languages, At
the beginning of the twelfth century, a Hebrew version was made by
Rabbi Joel; this was translated into Latin by an Italian, John of Capuz,
between 1263 and 1278, was called Liber Kalilee et Dimnae, Directorium
vitae humanae, and attained great popularity in the later Middle Ages,
In 1480 two printed versions of this book appeared, and it has been
reprinted in modern times. In 1483 a German translation appeared by
Antonius von Pforr called Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen, which
is the best and most famous mediaeval version of the Pancatantra. It
was repeatedly printed and, besides influencing German literature,
was rendered into Danish, Icelandic, and Dutch.?! The fact that four
dated editions appeared at Ulm within four years of its first publication
in German, followed by thirteen more during the course of the next
hundred years, shows the importance of the Pancatantra at the time. A
Spanish version appeared in 1493 and from it two Italian renderings by
Firenzuola and Doni were made in 1548 and in 1552 respectively, In
1556 a French translation was made from Firenzuola’s version. From
Doni’s version Sir Thomas North, the translator of Plutarch, made an
English tendering under the title The Morall Philosophie of Doni in 1570,
almost exactly one thousand years after the Syriac translation. No les
than six renderings had intervened between the original Sanskrit and
the English version. North’s translation was reprinted in 1601, the ye"
after the East India Company had been given a royal charter to trade
with India and further east.
After the Islamic conquest of Spain, numerous works were translated
ER Arabic into Latin or Spanish, including a Spanish translation ot
Kalila wa Dimna in 1289, entitled Calila c Dymna. This, or another
translation from Arabic, was rendered into Latin verse by Raimond d
Beziers in 1313, but it was not published. In the thirteenth centu
another translation from Arabic straight into Latin verse was made by
Baldo under the title Aesopus alter. These renderings of the Indian fables
were extremely popular, and indeed were read more widely in Europ”
according to Max Miiller, than the Bible or any other book.” Not on
were complete translations read but individual stories were incorpo"

230

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

o sermons, homilies, and works on morality. Inevitably they were

int 3 E
and localized to the extent that the original forms

modified, improved, .
forgotten. The speed and ease with which such tales spread testifies

a pleasure and joy with which they were heard and repeated. Because
of their appeal, the tales from India seem to have been quickly assimilated,
and their specifically Indian features could not be preserved in the rapid
transit from one people to another.

Another Indian work, the Swkasaptati (seventy stories of a parrot),
similar to the Pancatantra, also travelled westward through translation.
During the fourteenth century it was translated into Persian under the
title Twtinameh, and later rendered into Turkish. From the Persian
account many tales passed to Europe through western Asia, and one of
these was made famous by Gottfried V. Strassburg’s Tristan and Isolde.

In 1026 a work on Indian history, originally translated from the
‘Indian language” into Arabic by Abu Salih bin Su’ayb bin Jami was
rendered into Persian. This version, by Abu-l-Hasan Ali, was quoted
or summarized in a later Persian work of unknown date known as the
Mujmil al-Tawarikh. It was actually a version of the Mahabharata story
translated from a late Prakrit version.”

Another mediator of Indian tales was the famous Arabian Nights.
Muslim fundamentalists consider this collection noxious, because they
believe that pleasant stories stimulate sinful desires as much as wine, music,
or sculpture. This work, however, has been instrumental in fashioning
fee pa image of omana loves Many of its approximately two
and all the oe ee in the Arabic version) are from Indian storybooks,

: Seas e ements ofits framework are derived from Indian ideas.
eA e very similar to that of the pane ai as is the idea that
(No. 436) tll Pa to save someone's life. The Samugga ee

cautifl wife in e = of the asura (demon) who unsuccessfully put his
‘Sentials recurs į i S ©. guard her from going astray. The tale in i r
in the Arabian e 5 e Arabian Nights. Numerous animal fables a
arber’s Fifth ac ts ae BEGAN to Indian gaies for example, ©
(134b), “The Ki Bother (6ee), “The RUSK Wii and ie Parrot
aad His Pot a s Son and the Afrit’s Mistress (134w), The Fakir
tter” (161b), “The Hedgehog and the Pigeons” (17).

€ World-f

amous story of Sindbad is a tale of Indian origin. The Arab

e

231

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

historian Al Masudi expressly said that the Kitad el Sindbad was derived
from India. This work is identical with the Persian Sindibad-namah, the
Syriac Sindban, an Arabic version contained in the Arabian Nights, the
Hebrew Sandabar, the Greek Syntipas, and a number of other books in
European languages. The Greek Syntipas contains numerous Passages
that can be understood properly only by recognizing that they are merely
variations of a Sanskrit original, and everything supports the conclusion
that here is yet another case of an Arabic work rendered from a Pahlavi
translation of a Sanskrit text.

Most probably Jewish writings were also responsible for the
dissemination of Indian tales in Europe, especially in the Slavonic
countries. The influence of the Haggadah, a Jewish collection of tales
and parables, on mediaeval and modern European fiction has been very
great. From literature these stories were passed on to the people, and
after being modified went again into literature, to the people, and so on,
assuming in this process of alternation between literature and folklore
the character of national truth and individual unity which gives many
of them their great poetic quality. The very fact that a work can sustain
the interest of a wide variety of peoples living in distant lands for more
than a thousand years indicates its great intrinsic merit.

It was, however, in 1859 that the first direct translation of the Sanskrit
Pancatantra was made in a European language by the German scholar
Benfey. In 1952 the Pancatantra was newly translated into German by
Alsdorf. Although available in English in several editions for centuries
it was not directly translated from the Sanskrit into English until 1924
by Stanley Rice who entitled his work Ancient Fables and Stories, A ye
later, Arthur W. Ryder also translated the Pancatantra. :

The most important of all the later adaptations of the Pancatantra's
the Hitopadesa (Salutary Advice) which, owing to its excellent litertY
merit, is one of the most popular and best known Sanskrit works £
Europe. Containing twenty-five of the Pancatantra’s stories, it is y
fact a new work. Its authorship is uncertain as well as the date of it

compilation. Probably composed in Bengal somewhere between 1000
and 1300, it contains seventeen stories which are not found in any °
the recensions of the Pancatantra.” Besides Indian languages it has bee

repeatedly translated into European languages. It was in 1861 that f

232

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

Edwin Arnold, the celebrated poet of The Light of Asia, translated the
Hitopadesa from Sanskrit to English. ok
Apart from these literary channels, individual Indian tales must
have reached Europe through Arab merchants, travellers, and Gypsies.
Somewhat similar to the story-tellers in rural communities of India,
Gypsy story-tellers all over the world take their recitals very seriously,
and firmly adhere to a certain form, consisting of definite openings, links,
and tags as common and stereotyped as in India. However story-telling
in most societies tends to conform to a set pattern.
One of the most remarkable examples of the migration of Indian
tales is the acceptance of the Buddha as a Christian saint. During the
eighth century, a Christian, St. John of Damascus, was living at the
court of Caliph Al Mansur, during whose reign the Arabic version of the
Pancatantra was prepared. John wrote a story of Barlaam and Josaphat in
Greek as an exposition of Christian doctrines and theology, enlivening
it by fables and parables. The Christian clergy did not like it because it
was a religious novel. Nevertheless, it became immensely popular and
was translated into numerous languages. As early as 1204 it was even
translated into Icelandic. The major theme is accompanied by a body of
fables and parables mostly of Indian origin. Although the Barlaam story is
nota direct translation of any Indian original it is in fact, the story of the
Great Renunciation of the Buddha. Recent researches suggest that the
Sas oe a St. John had originated from Balavariani, a Georgian
ee ce : uddha Soy Balavariani, in its turn, was a derivation
ule = i ee In the sixteenth century Josaphat was made a
the founder or « ck Or thodox and Roman Catholic Churches. e
into Cae atheistic Asian religion should have been transforme
nec AS D indeed, an amazing episode in religious ee

osaphat, it wa Se between the careers of the Buddies ee
rstian cult ot an the last century that the Buddhist origin of this

hroughout a a :

accepted ag x S iaeval Christendom, Barlaam and Josaphat y

Seeticism, The feces of the ideals of Clases monasticism an
the Indian her : ue celebrated the festival days associated pith
*PPropriate abe alaam and his royal pupil Prince Josaphat with
nity, and “their relics were invested with exceptional

233

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

healing power.” In the literary world too, the influence of the Barlaam
story was deep and lasting. It inspired outstanding writers such 3
Guv de Cambrai, Rudolf Von Ems, Lope de Vega, Leo Tolstoy,
Shakespeare, who borrowed from it the story of the Caskets.2
The introduction of delightful Indian tales into mediaeval Eur

and

Ope at
a time when asceticism was strong there is of considerable Significance,

‘The worldliness and sensuality of the Indian fables must have helped
to bring European literature back to its natural course. Hence, almost
immediately after their arrival in Europe, Indian fables appeared in
Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313-1375) Decameron and Don Juan Manuels
Conde Lucanor, unrivalled examples of mediaeval prose. The Decameron
is an extraordinary work of literary art, containing witty and amusing
tales of adventure and the love of people of every class and character,
Its influence on European literature has been incalculable, especially on
Italian fiction. Whether Boccaccio was aware of it or not, many of his
tales, which he either heard in Naples or collected from other works such
as the Gesta Romanorum, were of Indian origin.
Other popular European storybooks such as the fourteenth century
Gesta Romanorum, whose authorship is uncertain; Chaucer’s (ca. 1340-
1400) Canterbury Tales; La Fontaine’s Fables; St. Rapola’s Märchen; and
Grimm’s Tales include fables of Indian origin. For instance, “The Passion
of St. Eustace and his Companions” included in the Gesta Romanorum
(Tale CX) has its origin in the Jataka tale Mahasutasoma (No. 537). The
Indian fables became known in Europe as the Fables of Bidpat (Pilpay)
because in the translation one of the wicked kings is reclaimed to virtue
by a Brahman sage, Bidpai. La Fontaine in the second edition of Fables
published in 1678, expressly confessed his indebtedness to Indian
tradition. In the Preface he says: “It is not necessary that I should sy
whence I have taken the Subjects of these new fables. I shall only s%
froma sense of gratitude that I owe the largest portion of them to Pilp
the Indian sage,”””. The story of the ebony horse in Chaucer's “Squit®®
Tale” came from India via
de Fust) and thence to Chaucer's ears. The theme of the three caskets”
of the pound of flesh in the Merchant of Venice are of Buddhist origin
stories derived from the Pancatantra—the “Gullible Husband” and t°
“Butler and the Blinded Brahman”—were adapted by Boccaccio. Many

234

Persia, Egypt, and Spain to France (Le Cheval

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

of the inmensely popular tales found in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy
tales, such as the “Magic Mirror,” the “Seven-leagued Boots,” “Jack and
the Beanstalk ,” and the “Purse of Fortunatus,” have been traced to Indian
sources: Chaucer's “Pardoner’s Tale” is an adaptation of a story in the
Vedabbha Jataka (No. 48) or of the ploughshares eaten by mice in the
Kula Vanija Jataka (No. 218). The story “The Three Fastidious Brahmans”
found its way to Siberia and Lapland through Central Asia, and from
there to Jutland, where Hans Christian Andersen wrote his “Princess on
the Pea.” The Jungle Books of Kipling are a revival of the beast fables. “The
Transposed Heads” from the Brihat Kathasaritsagara inspired Thomas

Mann to write a delighful story Die Vertauschten Kopfe.
One of the most popular fairy tales in Europe is the romantic story
of “Beauty and the Beast.” It is found in its numerous variations in
practically every country of the world. For centuries children have
sympathized with its amiable heroine. It first appeared in Europe in
1740 in Madame de Villeneuve’s Contes Marines. Ralston has examined
in detail its numerous variants, compared their similarities, and has
demonstrated it to be of Indian origin.” According to Max Müller,
the “Story of the Master Thief,” the complex legend of RAampsinitos as
reproduced in Gesta Romanorum, appears to be an adaptation of a story
in Hitopadesa. The Sanskrit tale is that of a Brahman who, upon being
told by three thieves in succession that the goat he was carrying was in
a throws away his load for the thieves to pick. The essence of the
ce ae believe almost anything if three people, seemingly
Tee P ; each eiior, repeat the same thing: The story of the
able migrati 9 panon may be one of the earliest examples of Indian
(No. 546) Taek i based on a story in the Maha Ummnagga Jataka
when he ie : e ndian story, the real mother lets de child go at e
tory of the “D > n being pulled apai by the two claimant mone
close in Ee and the Span in Grimm's collection is fea r
aital Pac hisi A a story of The Nautch-Girl and the Parrot, in the
cing; in Both a a a bird vows to bring aboni the ruin ofa human
Come to grie Fin € bird helps avenge anjustiojuni and in both, the guilty
fevents ig E ime of their own votaan acts. Such a series
“tellers in rie x to have been imagined independently by different
ost identical forms, and one is inclined to accept the

235

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

chronological influence of the stories. Numerous Jatakas, such as Virocang
Jataka (No. 143), Jambu Khadaka Jataka (No. 294), Dipi Jataka (No,
426), have parallels in such well-known fables as “The Ass in the Lions
Skin,” “The Fox and the Crow,” and “The Wolf and the Lamb,” The
Russian popular story “The Friend,” like other stories about evil spirits,
has been traced to Indian sources. Marusia’s demon lover is akin to the
Arabian ghoul or the Rakshasa of Indian mythology, as described in
the Arabic story of Sidi Noman and the Indian story of Asokadatta and
Vijayadatta in the fifth book of the Kathasaritsagara. Another Russian
story, the “Fox-Waier,” which is a variant of “Jack and the Beanstalk” in
which a fox is described as wailing, is said to be of Indian origin. Forde
Gubernatis points out that such “howling” is more in keeping with the
nature of the Eastern jackal than with that of its Western counter-part,
the fox.” The Russian story of Norka corresponds to an Indian one.
Again, the story Schastie and Neschastie (Luck and Bad-luck) is a variant
of the story of Vira-Vara found in the Hitopadesa and of a similar one
in the Pancatantra.

How stories undergo change during the course of migration is
illustrated by Max Müller with La Laitiere et le Pot au Lait from
La Fontaine’s Fables. Few stories have travelled through so many
translations. A milkmaid, Perrette, carrying a pail of milk on her head
to market, indulges in daydreams. From the proceeds of the sale of the
milk she will buy eggs, and then from the profits made on the eggs wil
buy chickens, and so on. At the prospect of her approaching wealth she
suddenly gives a jump of joy, thereby dropping her pail of milk. Her mil
is spilt and her riches are gone. In the original from the Pancatantra;
Svabhava Kripana (a born miser ), a Brahman, having filled his bowl with
rice hangs it near his bed and dreams of the profits he will make in time
of famine from his hoarded rice, buying goats and cows, marrying 2 sich
girl, and living in luxury. Imitating the ways of the rich, he dreams himselt
attempting to assert authority over his family, and he kicks the bow! ov"
The moral ofthis Indian story, that “he who makes foolish plans for ue
future will be white all Over,” became transformed through La Fontaine’
adaptation ofit, into what is a popular proverb in English—“don't coun

your chickens before they are hatched.”
Again, the well-known Welsh Story of Llewellyn’s dog Gelert

236

| MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

as told in William R. Spencer’s ballad, “Bedd Gellert,” is the Welsh
transformation of the Pancatantra story” of the Brahman who, having left
amongoose to guard his child in a cradle during his absence, returns and
finds the mongoose with its mouth covered with blood. Assuming that
the mongoose had bitten the child, he kills it at once. Later he discovers
adead cobra near the child and is filled with great remorse. In the Welsh
version, the mongoose and the snake are altered to a dog and a wolf.
The idea of killing hastily a faithful animal under such circumstances
has occurred independently to different peoples in distant lands, but
in this case, scholars have been able to trace back the successive stages
of transformation of the story from the Pancatantra version to the
Welsh version.”

‘The story of the fox who succeeds in stealing the young magpies
originated in the Pancatantra, and was later incorporated in the Reynard
cycle and in the work of Hans Sachs. Along with this artistic tale, and
undoubtedly influenced by it, there developed a folktale, well known in
northern and eastern Europe, in which the fox threatens to push down
the tree in which the magpie has its young. The crow gives good advice
tothe magpies and saves them. The fox avenges himself by playing dead
and catching the crow. The action in the latter part of the tale is the
Opposite of that in the literary fable.

Another tale which appeared first in the Jatakas and then spread
ae i story of the tar baby, the essential point of which 6 that
_, _ tet, generally a rabbit, is caught by a tar baby, some kind of
sticky image. Often the rabbit’s enemies dwell upon how he could be
Punished. Very in eniously, the rabbi d e to various kinds

ofpunishmens geniously, t e rabbit pretends to agre : :
io arenie eas begging not to be thrown into the brier patch.
ee ie oe into thinking thatit would do mm most aer:
aby was ee e briers and the rabbit escapes. This tale - the tar
undred and ffi very thoroughly by A. M. Espinosa in more than ee
Van ad eee versions. Later he supplemented the original ae :
Negroes and are hundred and fifteen. It seems this story reac i the
India to Afric us of America through several routes. It came from
characteristic Re it is very popular and mece it underwent some
ae T R before being carried, presumably by slaves,
er route lay through Europe to Spain and then to

237

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

American colonies. Yet, it could have travelled across the Pacific Many
centuries earlier. ;

Before any overall assessment of the Indian inspiration of European
beast fables is made, it should be pointed out that the literary fable
collections from India are only one of four principal sources upon which
Western tradition appears to have drawn. The other three are Aesop's
fables, the mediaeval literary animal tales brought together in the cycle
of Reynard the Fox, and the purely oral tradition, a very important part
of which was developed in Russia and the countries of east Europe,
‘The interrelation of all these influences is extremely complicated, and
the writing of the history of a particular animal tale extraordinarily
difficult.

India’s influence on the mediaeval fables is not seriously questioned
and fable migration during the Middle Ages can be traced through the
translations of Indian tales. But when parallels and identities are noted in
the ancient tales, and where there is no concrete evidence of borrowing
other than through human contact, analysis of the historicity of oral
tradition has to rely to some extent on conjecture, which no matter how
valid is frequently disputed.”

Parallels and similarities between Greek and Indian fables are quite
obvious, and a number of scholars have carefully analyzed both their
historical roots and internal structure. Since the beginning of scholarly
interest in fable migration in the middle of the nineteenth century
arguments have been sharply divided on the question of the historical
relationship between the so-called Greek Aesop's Fables and Indian fables.
Although the debate is somewhat subdued at present, opinion is noes
divided. As far as the antiquity of the fable itself is concerned, the case tf
India is unassailable. The dispute is over the priority of the beast fable.

‘The argument favouring the Greek origin of the beast fable is base
almost entirely on chronology, and the main confusion arises becats?
Indian chronology is not firmly fixed. Disputes concerning the dates g
major Indian works, although considerably narrowed, remain unresolved:
Max Müller held the opinion that in almost every case of parallelis™
the borrowing was done by the Greeks. Amongst the many schola”

who shared this view were Otto Keller and Johannes Hertel. Agun
them, Theodor Benfey, who regarded India as the home of all folktales

238

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

held the view that India had borrowed animal fables from the Greeks,
although he also stressed the existence of an independent Indian tradition
in this respect. Another Sanskrit scholar, A. Weber, first subscribed to
the theory of Indian origin but later reversed his opinion. A. Wagener
(Essai Sur La rapports qui existent entre les apologues de Inde et apologues de
Ia Grece) shared Weber's former view that in almost every case the Greeks
were the borrowers. Weber's latter view was vigorously opposed by Keller
in his work The History of the Greek Fable (1862). He fully believed in
the Indian origin of the fables and that they were transmitted to Greece
through an ancient Assyrian connective link.

The Greek fables belonging to different dates were collected in Aesop's
Fables in the third century by Valerius Babrius, a Hellenized Roman
who, in his Preface, refers to two sources for his material: Aesop for
the Hellenic fable and Kybises for the Lybian fable. This is the oldest
non-Indian collection of fables available, although Demetrius reputedly
made a collection in Athens in 300 s.c. Three-quarters of the fables
are about animals, and the rest deal with planets, natural elements,
such as the sea, rivers, and the sun, and a few with gods and men. The
work was soon translated from its original Greek and Latin versions
into a variety of European languages. It is said that a French collection
appeared in the tenth century, followed by many others and culminating
in the seventeenth century in La Fontaine’s Fables. Evidently, not all
of the stories are of Greek origin—although some certainly must be.
Tona Seion comprises the Life of Aesop; four books derived from the
es > = ection of the mediaeval prose renderings of Phaedrus, a
of Avian: 4 ie of Augustus in the first century; a selection of the Fables
neve fe some fables from other sources. The bulk of the stories

ies r a of Phaedrus, who refers not only to Aesop aii also to

eo TA cythian, a possible noure of Indian influence. ;
one hundred Bese bat Babrius colleccion which ran to h
ef oe ae es, was derived directly or indirectly from a Sinh ese
itself Was me ae to Rome in 52. It is suggested that the Life He
Benfey lis F edon the Persian or Babylonian “Story of Alapa whi
historicity Seas with a well-known Indian type. S Indeed, the

er a B doubtful, although Herodotus mentions him as a

who lived in the sixth century B.c. and who was the slave

239

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of a Samian citizen called Iadmon. Considering Herodotus’ undeveloped
sense of history, his uncritical reliance on oral tradition, and his gift of
imagination, his testimony must be accepted with caution. Later writers
also refer to Aesop but there are inconsistencies in their accounts,
However, Aesop’s historical existence is immaterial; his name was
certainly common in fifth century B.c. Greece as the author of fables,
whilst the earliest Indian fables on record date back to the upanishadic
period—the Chandogya Upanishad—and the tradition may have been
much older.
‘Those who assert the priority of the Greek fable maintain that the
Indian fable cannot be older than the fourth or fifth century B.C. This
date is based on the assumption that Indian folktales and the Pancatantra
are of Buddbist origin, and that the Buddhist Jatakas, another source
of Indian fables, were composed after the Buddha. There are several
flaws in this argument and its assumptions. The Buddha, accepting the
conservative estimate, was born about a century before Herodotus who
was supposedly born between 490 and 480 B.c. Hence, it is not unlikely
that the tradition of Buddhist birth stories had become quite powerful
in India before the time Aesop began his compositions. Jataka legends
occur even in the canonical Pitakas and it is now generally accepted that
the Suéta and Vinaya Pitakas containing Jataka tales are at least older than
the Council of Vaisali (ca. 380 B.C.). This conclusion is confirmed by the
bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the Jatakas in the Stupas of Sanchi,
Amaravati, and especially of Bharhut, where the titles of several Jatakis
are clearly inscribed. If there were a collection in existence in the fourth
century B.C., the oral tradition upon which it was inevitably based must
have been considerably older.
Most of the tales in the Jatakas open with “once upon a time W
Brahmadatta was reigning in Banaras”; the previous incarnation of the
Buddha was in the reign of Brahmadatta’s son Kashyapa. “It is therefore
possible, that a separate collection of beast-fables existed, connected we
this Kashyapa, which was incorporated in the Jatakas assuming him S
be a pre-incarnation of the Buddha.”37
More important, however, are the flaws in the assumption? that
the tradition of folklore in India is of Buddhist origin. Fables,
mentioned above, had been found in vedic literature which by ©“

hen

240

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

the most conservative chronological standards predates Aesop by at
Jeast five centuries. The most dominant form in Aesop, that of the
beast fable, is recorded in the Upanishads, definitely pre-Buddhist and
pre-Homeric.

The fact that the Jataka tales are Buddhist does not by itself prove
that the folklore tradition behind them is also Buddhist. Moreover, there
is definite evidence that the Jatakas are related to pre-Buddhist Indian
works. R. P. Mehta wrote an account of pre-Buddhist India in 1939
mainly from the Jatakas. He has also shown the pre-Buddhist ancestry
of the Jatakas, which, without the idea of the Bodhisattva, originally
consisted of a verse or verses and a prose narration embodying a folktale,
and were generally intended to impart a moral.” That the Jatakas have a
non-Buddhist Indian ancestry has been suggested by other scholars too,
such as Franke, who points to the parallels between the Mahabharata
and the Jatakas and suggests that the common tales in these two works
are not the outcome of direct borrowing but are connected through
some other common source.” If the Buddhist tales themselves are of
pre-Buddhist origin, then the argument that the stories collected in
the Pancatantra were originally Buddhist tales and as such belong to a
later period is invalid. Y et, it may be observed that although Buddhism
certainly influenced many tales in the Pancatantra, and that this fact led
Benfey to conclude that the Indian fables were of Buddhist origin, it is
DN certain that the work originated from Hindu sources and later was
a eui and Jain editors. Hertel proved quite effectively that
A aes 3 as Pancatantra was purely a Hindu work. Macdonpel
ofthe Tani, s opinion that there could be no doubt that, in the style
eae ayika, it was one of the earliest products of de artificial

te of India, “The general atmosphere is that of Brahmanism, while
"O relation to Buddhism can be found in the book. The view once rather
Widely held heen can be found in the ook eme ;
k a F a e Pancatantra was of Buddhist origin must s ae
comparative =e Ertel s work ae not quite solve the problem ae

aintained ae He of the Indian and the Greeks fable, ares e
B.C. but that he € ancatantra was written down in the second century

Cinsisteq EA Pa stories were probably much older. Furthermore,
ton e Indian fables were original, because the use of fables

Ve ins ces a
uction in politics was essentially Indian.

241

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indeed, apart from the historical evidence, the literary evidence also
leans to the Indian side. The fables have had too luxuriant a growth
in Indian literature to admit the theory of borrowed origins without
more substantial evidence. No other literature can vie with Sanskrit
in the richness of fables and stories when we consider the Jatakas,
Buddhaghosa’s Dhammapada Commentary, the Pancatantra, and the
Hitopadesa. In Greek literature before Aesop only eight complete fables
are known, with a dozen others merely referred to, including “The
Ass’s Heart,” “The Countryman and the Snake,” “The Dog and the
Shadow’—all of which can be traced to India. When one remembers
also that many of the stories in the Arabian Nights are of Hindu origin,
it is not easy to accept the view that the Indian tales could have a Greek
source. The Indian mentality was particularly favourable to the growth
of fables, animal stories, and fairy tales, because of the Indian belief in
transmigration, which effaces the difference between the human and the
animal worlds. Indians are extremely kind to animals for they believe in
their independent existence, and without such sympathetic treatment it
seems unlikely that the beast fable could have been written.

In supporting the theory of Indian origin, Keller pointed out that
the relation existing between the fox and the lion has no real basis in
the nature of the two animals, whereas the jackal does relate to the lion
as portrayed in Indian fable. Weber, who later advanced the theory of
a Semitic origin for the Greek fable, contended that the jackal existed
in the land of the Semites, and that the Greeks changed the jackal to 2
fox, and when the Indians took over the story they changed the fox back
to a jackal.“ This is a plausible explanation, but in the context of all the
evidence its efficacy is much reduced. That the migration of fables was
originally from East to West, and not vice versa, is clearly illustrated by
the fact that the animals and birds who play the leading parts—the iy
the jackal, the elephant, the peacock, the tiger, the monkey, and He
crocodile—abound in Indian jungles and rivers, but not in Greece. Itis
not possible to read Indian literature without being constantly impress?
by the sense of the forest.

Evidence in the Talmudic-midrashic literature and the parallel
between Indian, Jewish, and Greek fables and parables also lend we a
to the theory of the early westward migration of the fable from India "

242

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

Greece. The parable of the blind and the lame, for instance, which is so
popular in Jewish literature, and which is most likely of Indian origin,
was known to the Greeks of the fourth century B.c. It is possible that the
Palestinian writers got it directly from India, but it is more likely that
it came from the Greeks or Hellenistic Jews in the second century A.D.
Again, the legend about David's harpstrings has a parallel not only in
Indian folklore in the Pancatantra, but also in the Greek legend of Aeslus’
harp. The description of the world as a wheel frequently found in rabbinic
writings could have been borrowed from India through the Greeks;
although in rabbinic literature it is used as a metaphor, whilst in India it
isassociated with the dominant philosophical concept—transmigration.
In Midrash Rabba, a commentary on the Pentateuch (Five Rolls), Indian
fables are found and appear to have been taken directly from India,
because they have Indian features but not Greek. For example, the Jewish
story of the bird who has built a nest on the sea shore only to find it
threatened by the waves and who tries to bail out the water with its beak,
butis rebuked by another bird, has no parallel in Aesop, but is similar to
the Kaka Jataka (No. 146). It is also possible that the Pancatantra fable
inwhich the mouse, transformed into a girl by Yajnavalkya, declines in
Succession to marry the sun, the clouds, the wind, and the mountain
could have formed the basis of the famous Abraham legend in which
Abraham observes that one element subdues another: fire is extinguished
by water, and clouds are dispersed by wind.
: The Pancatantra is distinguished from the Greek Fables of Babrius
teen embed ne ee
oiT z in suc famous works of po Ngy 2S Kawis ‘ie
ee: - the technique of moralizing; the revi stories inipoini :
e ee not general maxims but special labels a e
nature ofthe or = = fables, is novel and pee ma a z
interlocuto, ie as is gnomic or acaparan, mineri E
Ae oa ‘great deal of floating gnomic literature in Sans a À
Wisdom, ect to this, paving the way for these passages of di K
that the ee the Pancatantra is a Nitisastra, the book of niti an :
Political eee ad no equivalent term, plus the fact that the pio o
“ndorse the 6 ae was essentially Indian and not Greek, would Nee
mginality of the Pancatantra. Wherever the introduction

243

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of the fable is traced, it is almost invariably associated with Political
applications. Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah applied the fable of “The Wolf
and the Crane” to prevent a revolution of the Jews against Romans,
Krylor and his followers in Russia made use of the fable to reflect Upon
the bureaucracy; and when Aesop was first translated into Chinese, the
officials soon suppressed the edition because they considered the fables
to be directed against them.”

Whilst the relation between the mass of Aesop's Fables and the
Pancatantra stories cannot be demonstrated, in some cases there is
plausible evidence of borrowing. Edgerton has recently analyzed two
tales which seem certainly to have been borrowed from India: “Ass in
Panther’s Skin” and “Ass Without Heart and Ears” of Pancatantra Book
TI and Book IV respectively." However, even if the priority of the Indian
fable is conceded, it does not explain the existence of a vast number of
Greek fables which have no parallel in Indian literature. No one could
seriously suggest that all Greek fables have been borrowed from India.
Clearly, both countries had an independent tradition of fables and itis
likely that the fable as a type did not arise exclusively in either India or

Greece, but that some migration of fables occurred when communication
between the two countries arose.

SANGITA, THE INDIAN tradition of music, is as old as Indian contacts
with the Western world
of evolution: primitive,
modern. It has travelled
and concert halls,

, and it has graduated through various strat
prehistoric, vedic, classical, mediaeval, and
from temples and courts to modern festival
imbibing the spirit of Indian culture, and retaining a
clearly recognizable continuity of tradition. Whilst the words of song?
have vaned and altered from time to time, many of the musical themes
are essentially ancient,

Sangita, which Originally meant drama, music and dance, was closely
associated with religion and philosophy. At first it was inextricably
interwoven with the ritualistic and devotional side of religious life. The
recital and chant of mantras has been an essential element of vedic ™
throughout the centuries. According to Indian philosophy, the ultimat?
goal of human existence is moksha, liberation of the atman from o
life-cycle, or spiritual enlightment; and nadopasana (literally, the worship

244

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

of sound) is taught as an important pean for reaching this goal. The
highest musical experience is ananda, the “divine bliss.” This devotional
approach to music is a significant feature of Indian culture,

‘The origin of Indian music is enshrined in beautiful tales and legends.
[tis a common Hindu practice to attribute the beginning of a branch
of learning to a divine origin through the agency of a rishi. Siva, also
called Nataraja, is supposed to be the creator of Sangita, and his mystic
dance symbolizes the rhythmic motion of the universe. He transmitted
his knowledge of cosmic dance to the rishi Bharata, through one of his
ganas, Tandu. The dance was called sandava and Bharata thus became the
first teacher of music to men, and even to apsaras, the heavenly dancers.
Similarly, the rishi Narada, who is depicted as endlessly moving about the
universe playing on his viza (lute) and singing, is believed to be another
primeval teacher of music.

‘The Indian musical tradition can be traced to pre-vedic times in the
Indus Valley civilization. From the excavations at Mohenjo-daro and
Harappa, musical instruments such as crude flutes, vinas with seven
strings, drums, and a bronze statue of a dancing girl, have been found.
During the vedic period a wide variety of musical instruments—wind,
string, and percussion—were in use. The goddess of music, Sarasvati,
who is also the goddess of learning, is portrayed as seated on a white
lotus playing the vina.
aut Hindus were familiar with the theory of sound (Gandharva

, and its metaphysics and physics. The hymns of the Rig Veda contain
ee “amples of words set to music, and by the time of the Sama
: Plicated system of chanting had been developed. By the time
eee Veda, a variety of professional musicians had appeared, rae
ne ss Sr ra flute players, and conch blowers. ne n
i eatly Indi < ae the prevalence of Sangita, both aga a cc a
tne ae a usic in India, however reached its zenith during the
ndian ae S classical age of Indian art and literature. ce

cae ie is based upon a system of ragas and is improvise o.
Certain ae moment of performance. The notes which are to sey
the twenty-five emotions or ideas ae selected with extreme a ae

2 raga, a fe intervals of the sruzi scale and then groupe © on
or a melodic structure of a tune. It is upon this basic

245

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

structure that a musician or singer improvises according to his feelin
at the time. Structural melody is the most fundamental ch

aracteristic of
Indian music.

Every classical Indian tune must be in a particular rag

a OF ragini; the
latter term, the feminine of raga, implies an abrid

ged or modified raga,
The word raga is derived from a Sanskrit root, rary ox raj, literall

y Meanin
to colour but figuratively meaning to tinge with emotion. The Re
feature ofa raga is its power to evoke emotion. The term has no equivalent
in Western music, although the Arabic magam iga corresponds to it,
Oversimplified, the concept of raga is to connect musical ideas in such
a way as to form a continuous whole based on emotional impact. There
are, however, mixed ragas combined in a continuous whole of contrasting
moods. Technically, a raga is defined as “essentially a scale with a tonic
and two axial notes,” although it has additional characteristics.

‘The word raga appears in Bharata’s Natyasastra, and a similar concept
did exist at the time, but it was Matanga (fifth-seventh century) who
first defined raga in a technical sense as “that kind of sound composition,
consisting of melodic movements, which has the effect of colouring the
hearts of men.” This definition remains valid today. Before the evolution
of the raga concept in Bharata’s time, jafi tunes with their fixed, narrow
musical outlines constituted the mainstay of Indian music. These were
only simple melodic patterns without any scope for further elaboration.
It was out of these jati tunes that a more comprehensive and imaginative

form was evolved by Separating their musical contents and freeing the™
from words and metres,
Indeed, a raga is basically a feeling,

to be associated with certain notes and twists of melody. A musician may
: : te
compose in the same Taga an indefinite number of times, and the mus!

can be considerably different each time, Although a raga is inexhaustible
it can ber So oBnized in the first few notes, because the feelings product
by the musici=n’s execution of these no

3 ffect
ae we tes are intensely strong. The ¢ i
of Indian music is cumulative rather than dramatic. As the musio®”
develops his

discourse in his raga. ; «othe gb

> " 8a, it eventually colours all ine th’ 5
and feelings of the listeners. Clearly, the longer a musician can dwel
on and extend the theme with a

rtistic intensity the greater the iM? i
on the audience. g 5

i i me
the expression of which has co

246

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

Unlike Western music, which from the mid-eighteenth century
constantly changes and contrasts its moods, Indian music, as well as
| Arabic and Iranian, always centres in developing and exalting one
f particular emotion. The musician, if he is sufficiently skilled, can “lead his
audience through the magic of sound to a depth and intensity of feeling
undreamt of in other musical systems.” Indian music is essentially
impersonal, reflecting “an emotion and an experience which are deeper
and wider and older than the emotion or wisdom of any single individual.
Its sorrow is without tears, its joy without exultation and it is passionate
without any loss of serenity. It is in the deepest sense of the word all-
human.” It is an art nearest to life; in fact, W. B. Yeats called Indian
music “not an art, but life itself,” although its theory is elaborate and
technique difficult.

The possible number of ragas is very large, but the majority of musical
systems recognize seventy-two (thirty-six janaka or fundamental,
thirty six Janya or secondary). New ragas, however, are being invented
constantly, as they have always been, and a few of them will live to join
the classical series. Many of the established ragas change slowly, since
they embody the modes of feeling meaningful at a particular time. It
is for this reason that it is impossible to say in advance what an Indian

pose will play, because the selection of raga is contingent upon his
€clings

at the precise moment of performance.

Indian music recognizes seven main and two secondary notes or svaras.
Representing definite intervals, they form the basic or suddha scale. They
es or lowered to form other scales, known in their altered form
intery Henk € chanting of the Sama Veda employed three to four musical
developed ae earliest example of the Indian tetrachord, which eventually
toa Reaves a full musical scale. From vaguely defined musical intervals

wen € tetrachord and then to a full oane of seven sucdba and
ere De a long, continuous, and scientific process. For instance,
Yariously q atyasastra, the earliest surviving work on Indian aesthetics
p; cated between the second century s.c. and the fourth century
to vik, stalled exposition of Indian musical theory, refers to only
encyclopae Bee antara and kakali. But in the Sangita Ratnakara, an
number Sis ndian music attributed to Sarngadeva (1210-1247), the
tas is not less than nineteen; shadja and panchama also have

247

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

acquired vikritas.” It was during the mediaeval period that R
the south, and Lochana-kavi in the north in his R
to shadja and panchama as constant notes. Indian music thus came tg
acquire a full fledged gamut of mandra, madhya, and tar saptak,

The scale as it exists today has great possibilities for musical formations,
and it has a very extensive range included in the microtonal Variations,
The microtones, the twenty-two srutis, are useful for determining the
correct intonation of the notes, their bases, and therefore their scales
(gramas). The Indian scale allows the musician to embellish his notes,
which he always endeavours to do, because grace plays the part in Indian
music that harmony does in European music.

Whilst Indian music represents the most highly evolved and the most
complete form of modal music, the musical system adopted by more than
one-third of mankind is Western music based on a highly developed
system of harmony, implying a combination of simultaneously produced
tones. Western music is music without microtones and Indian music is
music without harmony. The strongly developed harmonic system of
Western music is diametrically Opposed in conception and pattern to the
melodic Indian system. Harmony is so indispensable a part of Western
music today that Europeans find it difficult to conceive of a music based
on melody alone. Indians, on the other hand, have been for centuries
so steeped in purely melodic traditions that whilst listening to Westem

music they cannot help looking for a melodic thread underlying the
harmonic structures.

‘The fundamental and mosti
and Indian systems of th

AMamatya in
agataran gini referred

mportant difference between the rine
ythm is respectively one of multiplication and
addition of the numbers two and three. The highly developed tala, 0!
thythmic system with its avoidance of strict metre and its developmen!
by the use of an accumulating combination of beat subdivisions, has "°
parallel in Western music. On the other hand, the Indian syste™ ie

r the
no exact counterpart to the tone of the tempered system, except for t ;
keynote, of Western music. Conse. ations
are variously c;

melodic inte:
harmonic, arbitrarily

quently, just and tempered inton T
minate the possibility of combining
sruti system with the Western modulaci"
tempered theory of intervals. With its B
and metred rhythms, Western music is more €% i

248

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

comprehended than Indian music, which seems to require a certain
musical aptitude and ability to understand its use of microtones, the
diversification of the unmetred tala, and the subtle and minutely graded
inflection.*®

Considering the divergence between these two systems, it would be
difficult to imagine that one is indebted to the other, even in a small
measure, or that there could have been any points of contact between
the two. But Western music, as it appears today, is a relatively modern
development.

In early times melody was the sole component of Western music as
is revealed by the Gregorian chants, which may well be the archetype
of Western classical music. One or more male voices used to sing these
single threads of notes without accompaniment. Pope Gregory, in the
seventh century, revised them into their present form. During the long
period between Pythagoras and Bach, who successfully incorporated the
Pythagorean comma in The Well-tempered Clavichord, Western music, like
Indian music, was not modulating and largely free in improvization and
ornamentation. Because of Western music’s assimilative character and
genius for compromise, however, notes in the harmonic series gradually
began to dominate it. This made it, on the one hand, increasingly
sophisticated and complex, and, on the other, reduced progressively
its freedom of elaboration and improvization, subordinating it firmly
to the direction of the conductor. And, whilst it has been much poorer
modally, melodically, and rhythmically than Indian classical music,
eae that very restriction and constriction that provided the
finally ‘ ee necessary before polyphanic counterpoint, and
ae Seti offered new and promising avenues for development

on.

Rx a ces of European music is to Greece and Arabia.
aa be oe = fall of Rome, music began to be fashionable again, it
tree ee of the Greek theory and of Byzantine ee

Ae ae which led to the systematization of music in urope.

Ut Arabia Pe a influence percolated through the Romance eee

incon ie sae the countries of the Greek and Roman Us were

thi ie, ndia, and it is not unlikely that some Indian in uence in
reached Europe well before the advent of the Gypsies.

is Sp.

249

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The ancient Western world was aware of the existence of a hi
developed system of Indian music. According to Curt §
South Indian drum ¢ambattam that was known in Babylonia under the
name of timbutu, and the South Indian kinnori shared its name with King
David's kinnor. Strabo referred to it, pointing out that the Greeks believed
that their music, from the triple point of view of melody, thythm, and
instruments, came to them originally from Thrace and Asia. Arrian,
the biographer of Alexander, also mentions that the Indi
lovers of music and dance from earliest times. The Greek writers, who
made the whole of Asia, including India, the sacred territory of Dionysos,
claimed that the greater part of music was derived from Asia. Thus, one
of them, speaking of the lyre, would say that he caused the strings of
the Asian cithara to vibrate. Aristotle describes a type of lyre in which
strings were fastened to the top and bottom, which is reminiscent of the
Indian type of single-stringed ektantri vina.

‘The vina is really neither a lute nor a harp, although it is commonly
translated into English as lute. Generally known in its construction
as bow-harp, the vina must have originally been developed from the
hunting bow, a type of a musical bow, pinaka, on which a tightly drawn
string was twanged by the finger or struck with a short stick. To increase
the resonance a boat-shaped sound box was attached, consisting of a
small half-gourd of coconut with a skin table or cover, through which
a bamboo stick was passed longitudinally,
hair resting on a little wooden brid
the ekatari, or one-
relative, the duitar
inevitably added.
form of the finge

ghly

achs, it was the

ans were great

bearing a string of twisted
ge placed on the skin table. This wes
stringed lute of India, which soon produced its clos
i or two-stringed lute. Later, additional strings Were
Whilst it is possible to trace the passage of the slender
tboard instrument, Pandoura, from Egypt to Greece"
was not until they came into contact with the Persians that the Greeks
became acquainted with the bow, a fact whic
of the Indian origin of the Greek lute.
Although many varieties of t
its original form,
is known from th
is sufficient evid

. iew
h may reinforce the vie

R s ere
musical instruments W

Se

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

notes. However, in the other contemporary civilizations of Egypt and
Mesopotamia, similar instruments have also been found. The vina is often
shown in the hands of the musicians on the early Buddhist sculptures
at Bhaja, Bharhut, and Sanchi and is still in use in Burma and Assam.
In Africa it is used by many Nilotic tribes. A bow-harp, known as an
angle-harp, closely resembling the Indian vina can be seen in the mural-
paintings at Pompeii.

The two earliest Greek scales, the Mixolydic and the Doric have an
affinity to early Indian scales. Some recent British writers, for example
the editors The New Oxford History of Music, have attempted to exclude
Indian influence by making the somewhat strange suggestion that the
term “India” meant countries much nearer. Whilst the evidence pointing
to the direct influence of India on Greek music is slight, there is enough
of it to suggest serious Greek interest in Indian art. In addition, there are
parallels between the two systems, which may or may not be connected.
Itis certainly true that the seven note scale with three octaves was known
in India long before the Greeks were familiar with it. Pythagoras’ scheme
of cycle of the fifth and cycle of the fourth in his system of music is
exactly the same as the sadjapancama and sadja-madhyama bhavas of
Bharata. Since Bharata lived several centuries after Pythagoras, it has
been suggested that he borrowed the scheme from Pythagoras. At the
same time it has been pointed out that Indian music, dating as it does
ftom the early vedic period, is much anterior to Greek music, and that it
tae a Pythagoras may have been indebted to Indian ideas.
se mare er fields of scholarship in which he was interested, a close

Wh een his and the older Indian theories has already been noted.
is eat ae of any Sanskrit work on music translated at Baghdad

í dee = no doubt that Indian music influenced Arab music.
Miia E. ae a writer Jahiz, recording the popularity of Indian
kor ae, ae asid Court, mentions an Indian instrument PE a
instrument ee played with a string stretched ona pumpkin. n

nowledge of | MSE to be the ingar, which i made with two a :
author fone a ian music in the Arab world is evidenced by > f> al

any EEE who refers to a book on Indian tunes and me lo i

ndia, Indian a ee for Arab music were borrowed from Mase an
C, too, was influenced in return, incorporating certain

251

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Persio-Arab airs, such as Yeman and Hiji from Hijaz. At the beginning ‘fe
their rise to power, the Arabs themselves had hardly any musical system
worth noting and mainly practiced the existing systems in the light of
Greek theory. Since Indian contact with western Asia had been cl
constant, it would appear likely that the Arabic maqam iqais t
version of the Indian melodic rhythmic system, traga tala,

Ose and

he Persian

which had

existed for more than a thousand years before maqam iqa was known,
Yehudi Menuhin is convinced that

we would find all, or most, strands beginning in India; for only in India have all
possible modes been investigated, tabulated, and each assigned a particular place
and purpose. Of these many hundreds, some found their way to Greece; others
were adopted by nomadic tribes such as the Gypsies; others became the mainstay
of Arabic music. However, none of these styles has developed counterpoint
and harmony, except the Western-most offshoot (and this is truly our title to
greatness and originality), with its incredible emotional impact corresponding so
perfectly with the infinite and unpredictable nuances, from the fleeting shadow
to the limits of exaltation or despair, or subjective experience. Again, its ability
to paint the phenomena of existence, from terror to jubilation, from the waves
of the sea to the steel and concrete canyons of a modern metropolis, has never

been equalled.*!

It was during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after the discovery
of the direct sea route, that India came to be directly known in Europt.
It also happened to be the period of the Renaissance, the advent of the
Gypsies in Europe, and of the first food of progress in Western musi
Indian music came to be better known in the West during the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries but a wide appreciation of Indian music 1
western Europe has yet to articulate and mature.

Western interest in Indian music during the past century has

proceeded along two distinct lines: first, a purely academic interest by
scholars in the nature of Indian music e:

Bons and
specially in France, Germany, *
Britain; and second, adoption by Western composers of Indian them™

is i i i ; è z : st in
This interest in Indian Music was, in fact, a part of a wider ee F
Indian culture which had fascinated some European intellectuals 2
their discovery of Sanskrit’s rich heritage,

In 1863 Albrecht Weber published in Berlin a critical study of some

252

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

of the earliest texts on Indian scales. Later in 1888, Hermann Oldenberg

published
lengthy chapter deal
Haug’s work on the Sama Veda appeared giving the particulars of accents

s. At the turn of the century Ludwig Reimann, in a book

a book about the hymns of the Rig Veda, which included a
ing with vedic metres. About the same time, Martin

and notation
various instruments located in European museums, gave a detailed

about
description of several Indian instruments. Richard Simon published
with notations a critical edition of the compositions of Somanatha. He
attempted an interpretation of the system of grace notes adopted in the
Ragavibodha. The French scholars have included J. Grosset and Victor
Charles Mahillon and more recently, Alain Danielou. Amongst the
English writers, the best known are C. R. Day, who in 1891 published
abook on The Music and the Musical Instrument of Southern India; Anne
Wilson, who wrote a short book on Indian music; Alexander Ellis;
Charles Myers; and E. Clements who published his Study of Indian
Musicin 1913. A year later, A. H. F ox-Strangway’s famous and profound
book Music of Hindustan was published, and in 1921 Herbert A. Popley
brought out his work The Music of India.

With the advance of learning and national consciousness in India, it
was inevitable that Indian scholars should write in English on Indian
music, aiming their interpretations at Western or Westernized readers.
By far the most effective and brilliant exponent of Indian art, including
music, was Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, whose writings are as remarkable
for their depth of investigation and reflection as for their masterly
exposition.
ee works which have mainly employed Asian themes in a
iene oan idiom to provide for novelty or colour, such alate
PR = Seta Delibes or Madame Butterfly by Puccini, there
Rare ae of Western composers, such as Cree! Holst, Albert
4 ae ee Tessiaen, Paul Dukas, Vincent d'Indy, and Florent
eer interest in Indian HAUSE has been serious and artistic.
N es ae aS was releven! to Indian music, necialiy
y Indian ae 7 e leading motive, ' leitmotiv? He had been nipona

eR E t, especially Buddhism, and probably was familiar
erman Ste Latin translations and conversations with the
pher Schopenhauer on the subject.

253

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Maurice Delage and Albert Roussel consciousl
of Indian inspiration in their work with great skill and success. Alber
Roussel (1869-1937) was a French composer who visited India as
man and spent some time at Bombay, Ellora, Jaipur,
influence of this visit can be seen in two of his major works, Evocations
and Padmavati. The first is a workin three movements and is inspired by
his recollections of the Ellora Caves, Jaipur (or Udaipur?); and Varanas
and the River Ganga. The second work is an opera-ballet in two acts
which deals with the story of the legendary Queen of Chittor. The general
treatment of the work is in the romantic heroic model of Western opera,
but there are many instances, such as rhythms in 5/4 and 7/4, which
testify to Roussel’s deep interest in the melodic and rhythmic devices
of Indian music. One of the songs, sung by Nakamati, is supposed to
be based on an Indian melody. Various other melodic passages—modil
in character—and their harmonic treatment have also been affected by
Indian rhythmic devices. Maurice Delage, known for his study of and
admiration for Indian Music, incorporated his Indian inspiration in

Quatre Poems Hindous and Raga Mallika. Gustav Holst, who studied
Sanskrit seriously,

y embodied the result

a young
and Varanasi, The

Heads, based on a story by Th
an Indian tale,

harmony as structural assets,
rhythm as the basic structural

ee

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

A modern Indian scholar of Western music, Kaikhosru Sorabji,
at although there has been little understanding of Indian

points out th
the rhythm of which is far too subtle and complex “to

classical music,
be transcribed so as to be within the technical and musical capacities

of suburban drawing rooms,” the attraction and awe of Asian culture,
religion, and philosophy is so great for Westerners that Asian themes
are accepted with alacrity by many of them. It is, therefore, not so
much in the adoption of these themes and in superficial extremes that
the influence of Indian music is felt, but rather “in rhythmic intricacy,
in richness and efflorescence of elaborate detail, in abundant, intricate
arabesque, in melodic lines which, without imitating, suggest by their
contours relationship with melodies of Oriental types.” There are a
number of European musicians who accept Eastern inspiration without
making a point of acknowledging it. For example, Claude Debussy did
not consciously acknowledge his extra-European inspiration but it is
quite clear that without it certain very typical aspects of his art would
have remained either undeveloped or underdeveloped, and he could not
have produced such masterpieces as L’Enjant Prodigue, L’Aprés-Mudi,
La Mer, L Île Joyeuse, and Les Parjums de la Nuit: “In all these there
1s a suppleness of rhythm, a richness and delicacy of colouring, and a
flexibility of melodic line that shows very plainly their Asiatic affinities
and sympathies.” Strauss’ music-drama Salome also clearly shows marks
of Asian inspiration.
i yeats, Indian music, like other forms of Indian MS has
great revival both in India and abroad. Yehudi Menuhin has
een mainly responsible for introducing Indian music to contemporary
ee ee He went to India in 1952 ona Goer tour and w
every eee by the music. From this time on he has "i en
ndian eee write and speak of Indian music. In 1958
Widely in ee = ac begun to visit Britain, Lord Harewood trave is
Balan partis oe to the music. In 1963 he sponsored a Leese e
come one EA aa the Edinburgh Festival, and Indian music has now
See e chief features of this annual festival. ee
Western, a¢ a a number of leading Indian musicians have Se
Mecteasing ae ae Asian, countries. Their performances have gaine
pularity. Commenting upon the growing popularity of

255

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indian music in the West during the Edinburgh Festival OF 1963, the
music correspondent of The Times said: “The impact of Indian musicis
immediate, although like any subtle art it needs a lot of understanding
fully to appreciate it. I was once asked to arrange for a famous Indian
musician to play at a British university, but the professor of music w
me that the performance should not be long, since tl
used to Indian music. After the concert, which was shorter than it need
have been, the professor came up with beaming face and said ‘But why
didn’t you tell me it would be so enjoyable?”57 i

The advent of Indian music in the West has inspired promising young
composers to weave the two musics—Indian and Western—into a new
syncretic composition. For example, Mr. Peter F euchtwanger, whose
works have recently been gaining increasing recognition in the United
States and Europe, has been commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin to
compose a work for violin, sitar, tabla, and tambura. Menuhin himself
has made a best selling record, “East meets West,” in which he plays
raga with Ravi Shankar. And strangely enough the emergence of pop
music in Europe has led to an increase in the popularity of Indian must
in the West. The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, and other groups
have created a mounting enthusiasm for Indian music amongst young
people by using the sitar in their recordings.

Inspired by Western interest in their music, Asian countries have
also begun to organize international musical gatherings. In 1961 m
was a major conference in Tokyo which brought together artists bo
both East and West. Nicholas Nabokov inspired the Tokyo conferen
and one of the major Outcomes of it was the establishment of it
International Institute for Comparative Music Studies at Berlin. 1
years later, in 1963, the conference was repeated in Israel, although 0"
a somewhat less ambitious scale. Later, Delhi became the venue 0f"
International Festival and the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in if r
This expanding mutual interest amongst musicians and musicologis”
Europe and Asia will no doubt have wide repercussions on both si¢®

Although Western interest in Indian music has been serious A
continuous, recordings of Indian music are rarely found in Mes
homes and markets. In contrast, Indians play Western music ane
frequently and widely, but have made hardly any sustained study ©

256

arned
ne audience was not

8 EE eee

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

ean research on Indian music is meagre, there is hardly

Whilst Europ i
hip on Western music; the works of Sorabji are a rare

any Indian scholars

exception. Yehudi Menuhin believes that Western music has reached

a point where t
of the performer, and it is at this moment particularly ripe for Indian

influence, which might be most helpful in

here is very little room left for the personal expression

the flexibility of the tone-row, melodic freedom and invention, including
ornamentation; the peculiar technique of uniting melody and pulse of Indian
music; the ability to improvise with requisite training and the release of creative
energies in the performers; the quality of serenity, a type of unique, exalted and
personal expression of union with the infinite; and study of the incredibly complex
thythmic organisation of Indian music. The rhythmic patterns in Indian music
are as determined and precise as the patterns of ornamentation, again leaving
no margin for the minute ebb and flow of the individual pulse. This is a prime
example of unbounded intellectual complexity holding the emotional surge
in check.**

Fora long time the invention of chess was ascribed to various peoples
ranging from the Egyptians to the Welsh, and ever since the Arabs
transmitted it to Europe more than a thousand years ago, it has been
held in great esteem there. It commands an authority which no other
board game has ever attained, and has been described as “a philosophy,
‘ ni of mental athletics to which the very young bring an instinctive
ae and the old the distillation of their experience.” The complexities
ae a the almost unending possibilities of manoeuvre have
to be Ton pastime of the intellectual élite. It began as a war game
eh x etween the contesting maharajas, and it was regarded in
and a ope as one of seven knightly accomplishments—a release

oday i: à peen from the monotony and tedium of aristocratic life.
istinctions nthusiasts belong to a common fraternity in which all class

At ae: bia neces to the supremacy of the skilled.

iscovered in i urch frowned upon chess, but later St. = Aquinas
€ black Sea useful allegory of life, death, and the soci mee
Virtue, and ah es on the chessboard symbolized vice, the w. eas

into the ieee ended in all the pieces being swept off the oar
racy of death. This imposed spiritual analogy possibly

257

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

added to the mysterious power of the game, but
alien and mystical character which inhibited ch
Ages gradually vanished, and once again it
pastime.

It was after the discovery of Sanskrit by European scholars that th
Indian ancestry of chess was realized and acknowledged, although Thon
Hyde, the first writer to deal with non-European games, suggested the
Indian theory in 1694 in his De Ludis Orientalibus. Towards the end 0

the eighteenth century, Sir William Jones wrote that chess had been
known to Indians in antiquity as

as tin i
ne went on, this

ess during the Middl

assumed the role ofa pleasant

€
Nas

caturanga, meaning the four wings of
the army, which are described in the Amarakosa as elephants, horses,
chariots, and infantry. One of the early Sanskrit texts, the Bhavisha
Purana, contains a tale of a prince who lost all his possessions ina
game of chess played with dice. Chess must indeed go deep into early
Indian history, because it was associated with astronomical symbolism
throughout its growth. According to H. J. R. Murray, who published
his monumental study 4 History of Chess in 1913, chess descended from

an earlier Indian game called astapada, played on a board containing 8 *
8 cells.” Whilst it is certain that game

to another, gaps in information a
blur the course of diffusion.
Chaturanga was taken to Per.
of Anushirvan (531
according to the
reference to ches

s have travelled from one country
nd changes in names and rules often

sia in the sixth century during the rera
-579) where it came to be known as chatrang, ja
Arabic phonetic system became shatranj. The earliest
s in Persia is found in the Karnamak-i-Artakh ae
Papakan, written about 600. In the tenth century, the poet Firdusi relate

wae AE 4 sia
a traditional story in his epic poem Shahnama of how chess came to Pers

through an envoy of the King of Hind. Subsequently, it became know? o
the Arabs and also to the B

yzantine court through the marriage of Rhus i
Parviz, the grandson of Anushirvan, to the daughter of the Bee
Emperor Maurice. There are numerous Arabic references to chess: à
writing about 950, mentions that chess had exist“
possibly as long as a thousand years before his generation. ded,

P iscan
ersian origin of chess has now been disca

S EE

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

haturanga but is regarded as a foreign word by the Persians and Arabs.
chatura & ; i

Furthermore, al-fil, the Arabic name for the bishop, means the elephant,
otherwise alephhind, the Indian ox. From Persia the Arabs took it to

Spain, and from there it spread to the court of Charlemagne about 760.
Itis also possible the game may have reached France from the Byzantine
court for the monarchs of the two courts exchanged diplomatic missions
and courtesies, and amongst the presents from the aged Empress Irene to
Charlemagne was a chess set in which the two prime ministers (vazirs)
had been replaced by two powerful queens. Another theory holds that
chess was introduced to Europe during the period of the Crusades, but
there is evidence to suggest that chess was known in Italy before the
First Crusade.

From India, chaturanga travelled to China and then to Japan. The
earliest reference to chess in China is found in Niu Seng-Ju’s Yu Kuai Lu
(Book of Marvels) written at the end of the eighth century. The countries
of Southeast Asia learned chess both directly from India and, as in the
case of Siam, indirectly through China. Modern Japanese chess is very
different from its immediate parent in China, and both differ from
European chess, although all share a common ancestry.

Indeed, the earliest recognizable diffusion of games from India is to
China, and this is possibly a result of the spread of Buddhism from India
to China, During the first millennium A.D., Indian racing games began
to reach China. Karl Himly, an authority on the history of Chinese
toe on ie strength of a passage from the Hun tsun su, a work of
= her iod (960-1279), suggests that the Chinese game R’shu-pu
Wei De a western India and spread to China in be time of the

rough aes) Again, according to Wei-shts, k’shu-pu WEE
nae atone, S in Ancientitimes from; Hu country, vite at the Ta
the Chinese a somewhere in the vicinity of India. K'shu-pu is, > a
siege cp aptation of the Indian chatush pada (in modern ndian
ine, O aupur). The game apparently had four other successive names
s e (spear-seizing), thshan-han (long row), po-lo-sai-hi, and
nard a ce € sixes). The last of these names however, may ee to
a Persian ee sakes to the Greek table, and which, ge ae
nd of the ek tion, was introduced into northern India towards the
century by a Persian minister of Anushirvan. Nard is

259

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

mentioned in the mediaeval Iranian romance, Chatrang-
written between 650 and 850), which also spe
chess into Iran.

However, the ninth century Arab writer, Al Yaqubi, and other
early sources refer to nard as an Indian invention to illustrate man’s
dependence on chance and destiny. The board stands for the year; it has
twenty-four points representing the hours of a day. It is divided into
two halves of twelve points each, signifying the months in a year. The
thirty men (Ai/ad) stand for the days in a month. The two dice are day
and night, and the sum of opposite faces of the dice is seven for the days
of the week.” As this symbolism was also known to Byzantine Greeks,
it is not conclusive evidence of the Indian origin of nard. But as far as
China is concerned, shwan-liu was introduced from India in the seventh
century, whilst wei-ki, the oldest and best of the native Chinese games,
originated around 1000.6! Cubical dice (chhu-phu or yu-phy), although
found in ancient Egypt as well as in India, are generally thought to have
reached China from India, possibly quite early. The prominence of the
number six in the Book of Changes is said to have been derived from the
six sides of a cubical die.

‘The Japanese game sunoroky (or sugoroku, backgammon), which was
played at the royal court of the Nara tulers, and which is still a popular
game in Japan, may well have originated in India, for it is derived nop
the Chinese game Kshu-pu, which as stated earlier is known in its original
Indian form as chatush-poda.

What is perhaps more significant is that the dice used in Jap
today —cubes, each six-faced, numbered one to six—have exactly th

. y
same form as the dice found amongst the relics of the Indus Valley
civilization.‘ The significance of thi mii

s point becomes greater whe Sr
noted that dice are marked similarly throughout the world from an’
times. But the Indus dice,

p were
cubical or tabular and made of pottery,"
marked, except in one exa

0
mple from Harappa, not so that the su”

ae a ` site
two opposite sides is seven as they are today but rather, with one opp°'
two, three opposite four and fiv

€ Opposite six. ‘co
Indian games appear to have reached as far west as ancient Mex! Ri
Ele i
Writing in 1881, Edward Tylor, the first important Cie
parallelism in cultural development, pointed out that the ancient

260

i

namak (Probab |
aks of the introduction of

MYTHS, FABLES, MUSIC AND GAMES

opular Mexican game of patolli was very similar to the Indian pachisi,

and concluded that it must have come from Asia. Pachisi is a very
popular game in India with almost all classes of people. Mogul emperors,
especially the great Akbar, were very fond of the game and played it with
all the regal trimmings on courts made of inlaid marble, the remains of
which can still be seen at Agra and elsewhere. Patolli also was popular
with the Mexican aristocracy as well as the peasantry. Mexican gamesters
would walk about with their patollizeli mat and markers, and the Emperor
Montezuma reputedly watched his nobles playing at court. Addicted
to gambling, the Mexicans were also passionately fond of another dice
game, tlachtli.

About seventeen years after Tylor, Stewart Culin showed that even the
cosmic meaning of the Mexican game, its relation to the four quarters of
the world and to the colours ascribed to them, was essentially the same
as in pachisi, particularly in its Burmese variation. Kroeber, who did
not find much evidence of contact between India and ancient America,
conceded that the mathematical probability of the two games being
invented separately, agreeing by chance in so many specific features, was
very low. Also, the close correspondence between the rules of the two
games does indicate a firm connection.

Pachisi, in fact, is played all over the world, and, as expected, it has
acquired certain local characteristics and is called by different names
S Se Countries However its Indian ancestry is easily proved.
awe i. ss seas as poste, in Somaliland (ALS in Persia pachis, in
Tease Sea in Spain parchis. In Britain Ñ is popularly known
e ee version of the Indian pachisi, having been patente

in 1896.

261

Chapter VII

ROMANIES:
LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

ROMANIES, OR GYPSIES as they are popularly known, had their origin in
India. ‘They are the descendants of tribes who left the banks of the Indus,
traversed a number of intervening countries over a period of centuries,
and arrived in Europe more than five hundred years ago. For a long time
they were mistakenly believed to have come from Egypt and the word
“gypsy’—a misnomer—is a derivative of Egyptian. Today there are sik
million or more Gypsies scattered throughout Europe and North and
South America.! They are found throughout Asia and Africa and there
are even isolated bands in Australia and New Zealand, Their love
nature and liberty is unrivalled in history. These gay, colourful, unique,
and somewhat mysterious people wander about the world in small groups
never demonstrating a definite pattern of movement. Romanticized fot
their music, dancing, and folklore, they are a people with identity but i
nationality, political tights or freedoms, written history, art or scienc?

3 ; TERE for
or any international organization, agency, or movement to plead
them.?

Despite their significant c
a period of centuries,
kindness. They have

i sng All
S ; ation camps for the sole crime of possessing x
irrepressible urge for freedom and an attitude of defiance against any

262

a

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

of regimentation.” The very presence of such a group in their midst made
the Nazis uneasy. Other European countries also have a sordid record of
Gypsy-persecution. Whatever their faults, the Gypsies did not come into
Europe as bandits or as tramps. They have always been skilled in metal
work and music and dancing. At worst, Gypsies have been guilty of trivial
crimes, such as theft without violence, generally involving items of food
and clothing—much less serious crimes than are common occurrences
amongst most advanced and modernized communities.

Soon after their arrival in Europe they were characterized as a people
who spoke a strange language and practiced sorcery. The peasants were
alarmed and the state officials in towns disturbed by their presence. In
1427 the Bishop of Paris excommunicated them and they were driven
out of the city. They were blamed elsewhere, as they are even today, for
thefts, exactions, and black magic, but above all for being foreigners. The
Parliament of Paris ordered their expulsion in 1539. In 1560 the Estates
General of Orleans called upon “all those imposters known by the name
of Bohemians or Egyptians to leave the Kingdom under penalty of the
galleys.” The decree was applied with extreme severity, and penalties,
ranging from cutting off ears to hanging and “breaking on the wheel,”
were carried out indiscriminately and expeditiously. There are many other
carly accounts which refer to similar repressive laws and punishments. No
matter how hard it is for us to imagine the dark depths of superstition
and fear that prevailed in Europe at the time, the ruthless persecution
of Gypsies must invite severe comment.
aa period when the Gypsies first appeared in Germany was fraught
of kea events: the coming of the Black Death, the re
scene poe the burning alive of John Huss, and the Battle o
attributed z E tragedies, epidemics, and scourges of nature ts
them as “trait ypsies. The Reichstag held at Speyer in ae oe He
hy ue Christian countries, ordered their ae os
congratulated m the Palatinate. The Prince Elector 7 m $ 4

Ee ea Henne L
the sixteenth $ or ogging ind branding their women an : a a
inclu ding ies in Bavaria alone, hundreds of peacea A yp x
Witcherat i ren, were put to death by torture and fire on charges

communion with spirits. In 1724 in Beyreuth, fifteen

263

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Gypsy women, aged from fifteen to ninety-eight, were hanged ing sti
day. Two years later, Charles VI ordered the death of all male Gypsiesin
Austria. In the early eighteenth century, Gypsies were arrested on sig
flogged and branded, and if found again put to death without mercy,

In Spain their persecution was equally harsh. They were banished by
royal edict under threat of terrible penalties as early as 1499, Later in
Toledo in 1523, and in Madrid in 1528 and 1534, edicts revived this order
and threatened the Gitanos with the galleys. But many hid in caves and
avoided the merciless persecution of Ferdinand, Charles V, and Philip
Il. The Spanish kings made many laws for what they regarded as the
protection of their subjects from pernicious people. “Perhaps there is no
country in which more laws have been framed,” wrote George Borrow,
“having in view the extinction and suppression of the Gypsy name,
race, and manner of life, than Spain.” It was during their successive
banishments from Spain that many Gypsies temporarily overcame their
fear of the sea, sailed for South America, and penetrated into Brazil, Pen,
and Chile. Later a somewhat more liberal policy was introduced—they
were to be called neo-Castilian—and Gypsies in Spain multiplied with
surprising rapidity. They were, however, not permitted to use their own
language, Romani, or to wander about the country. This prohibition 15
still in force and, discriminatory as it appears, it did force many of them

to settle down. Since 1873 they have been allowed to do more or less
what they please in Spain.

Poland, Sweden, Norway,
from their territories. In Rom
under inhuman conditions wi
porridge. In addition they
and iron hooks were fixed i
them from sleeping, There
by public auction in group
slavery ended and their sj

In Hungary and in Tra

and Denmark also tried to expel oe
ania they were enslaved and forced to ey i
thout any wage except a small meal foes
were flogged naked, for little or no ss
n their necks as a punishment and to prev"

were slave markets where Gypsies were ® t
s or whole families. It was only in 1852 h
tuation improved somewhat.

; into slave
nsylvania also, Gypsies were forced into a nes)
Under the Pretext that the Gypsies had committed heinous c^”

charges never supported by evidence, the authorities imposed unspe
penalties on them. In 1782 the Hungarians hanged, beheaded, or by
on the wheel forty-one Gypsy men and women. Others were drive?

Cake 264

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

soldiers into dangerous swamps to die by drowning.’ Yet, in Hungary
Gypsies enjoyed, in the midst of slavery, more freedom than anywhere
else.

Gypsies were also severely persecuted in Britain and it was infinitely
more difficult for them to escape detection there because England has
little wilderness to offer as means of escape or protection. They arrived
there some time in the middle of the fifteenth century and quickly
dispersed throughout the British Isles. (How, with their fear of water,
they crossed the North Sea or the English Channel is somewhat of a
puzzle.) For a while the Gypsies remained unmolested, but during the
reign of Henry VIII severe measures were taken against them. In 1537
Lord Thomas Cromwell, the keeper of the Privy Seal, advocated the
wholesale banishment or execution of Gypsies, and a dreadful campaign
of persecution was begun. Merely being a Gypsy was esteemed a crime
worthy of death, and “the gibbets of England groaned and creaked
beneath the weight of Gypsy carcasses, and the miserable survivors were
literally obliged to creep into the earth in order to preserve their lives.”
During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), who accused the Gypsies,
amongst other misdeeds, of hiding priests and emissaries of Rome, even
more extreme measures were introduced. In 1563 they were ordered to
leave the country within three months under penalty of death. As late
a 1882, by an Act of Parliament, all persons purporting to be Gypsies,
telling fortunes, wandering abroad, or lodging under tents or carts were
tobe treated as rogues and vagabonds. Legal discrimination against the
ce opened in Britain in varying degrees until the beginning of
Satine an i 1908 the laws were relaxed and they were given eee
atte. a accommodation to settle down to their traditional life Pag
No a a strong prejudice still exists in parts of Britain, an

nglish te erved is a sign openly displayed in the windows of many

A a inns todays me a
they were . a after a brief period in the sixteenth century during ee
as Murderers ae with the kings, Gypsies were condemned in 1 A

© Privy a thieves, and sorcerers, and their execution wes sougl t.
the choice Say of Scotland promulgated a decree giving Se
arliament eae sedentary work and expulsion. In 1597 an cto

passed, which was reaffirmed in 1600, authorizing the

265

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION |

government to punish Gypsies along with vagabonds and beggars wih |
penal servitude for life. In 1627 all Gypsies were |

ordered to be forcibly |
recruited into the army, and in 1665 they were to be banished to tk

West Indies, Jamaica, and Barbados. In 1715 nine Scottish Gypsies were |
transported to Virginia, and they appear to be the first British Gypsies
in America, the forerunners of the many thousands now living there
France deported Gypsies to America; Portugal
Africa and South America. Britain also b
In fact, deportation appears to h
one time or another al
to distant lands.

and Spain sent them to
anished Gypsies to Australia
ave been a common practice, anda |
most every European country deported Gypsies

In Russia, however, Gypsies did not encounter any serious hostility,
although life for them must have been harsh in the wintry vastness. They
are mentioned as being in Russia since 1500, and there are no recordsof
Oppression or persecution under either the Tsarist or Soviet regime. On
the contrary, there seems to have been a bond of friendliness between
Russians and the Gypsies. Local governments in Russia are known to
have made sincere efforts to integrate them into a settled life, although
they were not completely successful. Gypsies continued to wander about
the country unmolested for some time, although since 1956 they have

been prohibited by law from leading a nomadic life. In Russia, GYP%

music and dance have always enjoyed popular, as well as aristocrat
appreciation,

and today in Moscow there is a Gypsy theatre, “Romen,
and the study of their culture is encouraged, ah
> 3 utedin
During the nineteenth century, although generally less persecuted!

; erjminals.
Europe than before, Gypsies were automatically regarded as crimin

‘They were accused of kidnapping children, suspected of sorcery, an
invariably treated wi

th scant justice. Even today they are looked upat
with extreme suspicion, apprehension, and contempt. A stereor
image of the Gypsies dominates the thinking about them. No people"
history have been made to suffer what they have. Suffering is $° ae
2 part of their life that a Gypsy proverb designates it as “a bads®
honour.”? f

Existing knowledge about Gypsies is hopelessly inadequat =|
this ignorance has resulted in either unreasonable fear, prejudice, 7

: at . ape!
antagonism, or in the. yth of the noble savage. Articles, news? j

266

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

reports, OF television programs seldom attempt a true representation
of thcir life and history. They are, perhaps, victims of their determined
refusal to lead a settled life, believing that those who are prejudiced
against them have no understanding or appreciation of their adherence to
true liberty. No wonder the Spanish novelist, Miguel de Cervantes, who
was familiar with Gypsy life and culture, acclaimed the Gypsies in his
La Gitanilla as “the Lords of the Universe, of fields, fruits, crops, forests,
mountains, of rivers and springs, of the stars and all the elements.”

In spite of persecution, hostility, and apathy, the Gypsies could not be
exterminated or even subdued for any length of time. They have survived
all over the world; have remained the happiest, gayest, and the most
light-hearted of people; have achieved a gigantic migration without losing
their identity; and represent an exceptional example of a well-defined
cultural group. It is almost incredible that the group of over a hundred
which first appeared in Germany in 1417 should have not only survived
but grown into the millions spread throughout the world today.

Ifsettled peoples hold them in contempt, the Gypsies reciprocate the
attitude in equal measure, but they most dislike those amongst themselves
who desert the realm of open space. Their stock of abusive epithets,
mainly reserved for the semi-settled Gypsies, is quite rich, and they have
derogatorily designated non-Gypsies as gadjo or gaujo (peasant, yokel,
bumpkin, or clodhopper). English Gypsies call half-breeds posh-rat, and
less than half-blood Gypsies and vagrants didakyai. Muslim Gypsies of
ee Christian Gypsies das (Sanskrit dasa, infidel, non-Aryan).
force cy themselves infiltrate everywhere, they allow little penetration
eee eae consider themselves superior to all other peoples,
ofthe ‘ee purity, health, and Wi isdom, and zealously guard the pat
ee nany blood. A Gypsy marrying a non-Gypsy is excluded from
A y community for all time, and children of mixed marriages

n call themselves Roms.
T o on the road knows the taste of real liberty and he regards
to money > as little more than a mere cog in a gigantic machine bed
Gypsie a ano and a timetable. Throughout the Cen tumies
ought, lied, cheated, and suffered numerous humiliations

and f
i ee to retain their own individuality, language, and cultural

267

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Attempts have been made in the past, and are still being
Gypsies into useful citizens, to show them the advant:
and fixed employment, to integrate them in settled societies and to
rehabilitate them. Maria Theresa, the Empress of Austria, initiated ¢
movement to integrate Gypsies into European society in 1761. She calle

made, to tur

them New Hungarians, but her efforts were largely unsuccessful. Later |

nineteenth-century efforts were somewhat more successful: Archduke
Joseph of Prussia set up Gypsy settlements, and Catherine II of Russi
gave them crown lands. In Britain Gypsy societies were founded for
thcir reform and education. In central Europe today they receive
special encouragement, scholarships for education, and consideration
in employment. In a ceremonious procession in Delhi, Nehru led these
“followers of Rana Pratap,” a liberty loving king of Rajasthan who
suffered a homeless existence in preference to submission and a life of
comfort and riches, to free allotments of land on the outskirts of the city.
But their love for open spaces has been far too deep to be easily uprooted.
Or perhaps it is their pride in being different from the rest of mankind
and their unwillingness to make concessions that have enabled them to

Manush (also called the
other Gypsies, as distinct from non-

ntic Romanies, and are ge
k hair, white teeth, brown eyes, 4?
many of whom have fair skin and som? m
blue eyes and fair hair. The Kalderash, who came westward from ea
Europe and now live mainly in northern and northwestern Europ"

evel

gait, except the Kalderash,

268

ages of education |

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

the Manush, who wander about generally in Germany, France, and Italy,
consider themselves the oldest and the best; the former even look upon
themselves as the only “true” Romanies. The Gitanos, called Gitanes in
France, are mainly concentrated in Spain and France, with an offshoot
called Ciganos in Portugal. This differentiation is of Gypsy origin, and
each group seeks to project an inflated image of themselves. They speak
diverse dialects and rarely intermarry. In spite of the dispersion of their
groups and lack of uniformity in many of their customs, all Gypsies regard
themselves as one people and are very proud of their race:

I wouldn't be a noble

My birth is no disgrace
I'd rather be a Gypsy,
The same as all my race."

‘The basic language of all Gypsies is Romani, although each group
inevitably grafted on the foreign idiom, vocabularies, and pronunciation
through centuries of living in various countries.” Although Gypsies have
never had a written language and have retained the tradition of their
language by word of mouth over generations, they have kept it relatively
es The social customs and manners, taboos and superstitions, laws and
religious beliefs, and their patrin (or patteran), although varying from
TOUP to group, are fundamentally the same.
are today doubt that the original home of the Gypsies was
tena a the case for their Indian origin is overwhelming; it is not
aetna à pown when they first began to leave India and under what
so. Nor ane a on what scale they did, or were compelled to do
Biei ares een settled exactly where in India they originated, just

ochanoweht ae that Gypsies were originally a nomadic people. Jan
Nomads in ee aoe ae has recently suggested that they were a
itwill substanti ee Should this be accepted as historically v
Indian histo : sae ate prevalent ideas of Gypsy history and ah
relevant eee sew: indifferent on the subject, and the paucity o
is disconcerting." The Indian aspects of Gypsy history

t be e i
and com a fascinating and instructive, but they remain obscure
Plex,

269

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Considering that there are many Greek words in the Gypsy language
and that all Gypsies still count in Greek, Verovici is of the opinion
that the first exodus of the Gypsies from India happened at the time of
Alexander’s invasion. On the other hand, Grellmann believed that the
Gypsies had been driven out of India by Timur and his savage hordes
at the end of the fourteeth century. This view appears to rely partly ona
reference to Gypsies made by Arab Shah in a chapter of his biography of
Timur, which is a classic in Arabic literature. But this reference describes
not only some curious details of Gypsy life in Samarkand, but also their
extermination by Timur because the Gypsies were constantly rising in
rebellion against him. Since Timur had annihilated the Gypsy population
of Samarkand before he invaded Indian territory, the theory that his
invasion caused the wandering of the Gypsies must be abandoned.
Moreover, this theory is contradicted by the evidence of the existence
of Gypsies in Europe before this date.

According to Jan Kochanowski, Gypsies were the original survivors of
the army of the famous Chauhan Rajput ruler of Delhi, Prithvi Raj, atte
its disastrous defeat by the forces of Muhammad Ghori in 1192. They
carried out guerilla campaigns against the Ghorid rulers for some time
from their mountain resorts and jungle hideouts, but were not victoriou:
and lost most of their men. The remaining few split into three grou
one of which left India through Afghanistan to Europe, founding the
modern group of Gypsies, whilst the other two remained in India ant
mingled with the peasants and artisans. ,

Another theory holds that the Gypsies came to Europe from ky
through Persia. The Persian poet, Firdusi, mentions in his Shah Nam
that about the year 420 the Sassanian King of Persia, Bahram a
requested Shankhala, the Maharaja of India, to send him people capt
of entertaining his poor subjects whose lives were miserable with?!
music and amusements. Soon Bahram Gur had collected twelve ioar
Indian musicians men and women alike, to amuse his people. The Indiat
were assigned land and given facilities to cultivate it. But the ™S
neglected agriculture, consumed the corn seed, and incurred the w™ e
the Persian King, who seized their musical instruments and comm"

them to roam the country earning their living by singing.

SAE : iret?
‘The accuracy of Firdusi’s narrative may be coloured with som® i

270

jcian®

EO Wil

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

imagination, but his account is supported by the Arab historian, Hamza
of Isfahan, who wrote in 940, about half a century earlier than Firdusi.
Both writers called these musicians by terms which later came to mean
Gypsies. Firdusi uses the ordinary Persian word Luri, and Hamza the
word Zott, which is merely the common Arabic pronunciation of the
Indian word Jas, and which is also one of the modern Syrian words for
Gypsies. It is possible that Firdusi borrowed the episode from Hamza.
His account, nevertheless, testifies to the presence of Indian musicians
in western Asia from early times. The Arab conquest of Sind in the
eighth century may have provided further impetus to Indian artists and
entertainers to travel westward.

Charles Leland, who identifies the Gypsies with the Jats of northern
India, suggests that they were taken away in large numbers as slaves by
Mahmud of Ghazni during his Indian invasions. Mahmud, having later
acquired fairer slaves from Persia, released many of his Indian captives,
who then wandered westward. This theory, however, does not explain
why the prisoners chose to wander westward upon their release rather
than return home. An explanation, if the story is true, may perhaps be
sought in the caste structure of Hindu society. The released slaves, who by
the rigid code of caste may have performed prohibited deeds, would have
had little hope of rehabilitating themselves in Hindu society. Disinclined
‘oreturn, and detached from their natural habitat, they may have opted
for the life of freedom without losing their identity.

In Arab chronicles there are frequently references to wandering tribes
ee a Evidence is also found of a tribe of roaming cattle breeders,
Shee ae ago at the mouth of the Indus, and who raised dair De
are eir black water buffaloes could graze. The Arabs tried sever

Under eis them, but were driven back cach time. ane

pain, the oe (705-715), during whose reign the Arabs lan e ag
e a Otts agreed to terms of peace but Walid later realized t n

them sou could not be relied upon. In 710 he took a great many 0
eae $ and led them to the borders ofi the Tigris in o
es cee Yazid II, still more prisoners were Se ie
Baie E eir cattle and tents. About a century later, in 820, : e
fourteen eee so powerful that they defied the Arab ponen and or
waged a continuous war against the Arab armies, inflicting

271

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

heavy losses and capturing a great quantity of booty. It was only after
long and costly warfare that the Zotts were subdued by the Arabs under
Al Motasim in 834. The Arab commander took about twenty-seven
thousand prisoners—men, women, and children—with him to Baghdad
and then deported them, first to Khanikin, northeast of Baghdad, ang
then to Ainzarba and to other places on the northern frontier of Syria,

In 856 the Byzantians, called the “Rums,” captured Ainzarba fon
the Arabs and took the Zotts prisoner. The year 856 is the approximate
date of the first appearance of Gypsies in Byzantine territory. That the
Byzantians were called Rums and that the Gypsies later called themselves
Roms may be significant, or pure coincidence. But the whole episodeis
too well authenticated and well knit to be lightly dismissed. This evidence
indicates that the migration of the Gypsies from India occurred during
or before the eighth century, and that in the ninth century Gypsies were
living in Lower Mesopotamia. This is supported by Byzantine records,
which speak of a people closely resembling Gypsies, called Athingan
(or Azingaboi), who are characterized as magicians, and who were living
in Constantinople about 810. About two hundred years later a Georgian
monk noted the arrival at Mount Athos of a group of people, Atisincam
who were forthwith styled as “sorcerers and thieves.”

John Sampson seems to have come to the conclusion that the Gyps*
were in Persia before 900.5 He believed that in Persia they divided ind,
two bands: the one, called Ben Gypsies, travelled southward into aye
and became the ancestors of the present Gypsies of Syria, Palestine,
Egypt, Persia, and Transcaucasia; and the other, the Phen Gypsies» m
settled in Armenia and then migrated westward through Byzantine
Greece. a

Other philologists, such as Miklosich, believe, however, that Gyps”
could not have left India before 1000 because the evolution of i
modern Indian languages, with which Romani is associated, di a
take place until that date. Whilst serious consideration must be > è
to such opinions, it cannot be overlooked, as Sampson argued, n doc
huge gap between the break up of the Prakrits and our first know”,
of the modern languages does not allow any positive statement pe
made in this respect. In fact, Miklosich himself did not altogethet a

the possibility of an earlier Gypsy exodus from India. At a time

DUA

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

modern Indian dialects were taking definite shape, the Gypsies may have
taken with them the germ of corruption and developed an analytic form
of language similar to that of the other Indian idioms. A contemporary
scholar, Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, whilst claiming no expertise in philology
and not denying the Indian origin of Gypsies, does not quite accept the
accuracy of the dates advanced by the experts. For philologists “are at
work on something, an indefinite something at that, which happened
at least eight hundred years ago, before the earliest of them set to work.
Can they be definite to a century or two or three?” The bulk of opinion,
however, accepts the view that their dispersion began somewhere about
the tenth century.

Whilst the date and manner of the Gypsy exodus from India remain
somewhat uncertain, there is relatively better evidence available regarding
the times of their recorded appearances in the various countries of the
West. These records, however, cannot exclude the possibility that the
Gypsies may have been in Europe long before official mention was made
of them.

For some time the generally accepted date for the first appearance
of the Gypsies in Europe was 1417 when a small band of men and
women were discovered in Germany at Luneburg, bearing letters of
safe conduct from various princes, such as Emperor Sigismund, and
the King of Hungary. In that year Gypsies were also noticed in other
Parts of Europe, in Moldavia, Hungary, and Switzerland. But there is
* good deal of evidence that they had been in Europe for quite a while
ee Sua Their leaders bore Christian names, such as Andrew,
pees F Thomas, which suggests a long stay amongst Christian
of Sa 3 ae: Gypsies may have reached Spain or Bohemia, we
bene Balkane zechoslovakia, before the fouriecaih a the
the Greet ee : early as the eleventh century." They were a Yt
Mean that et a Corfu early in the fourteenth century, whic o

S talians had come into contact waite quite ae or

oma eee to Venice from 1401 to 1797.” Indeed us nown
e Dinca iceroy, Otkaviano Buono, that there were ey in
fre E a before the end of the fourteenth century, fon e

auplion byt, he confirmed the privileges granted to the Acingani o
Y his predecessors. At about the same time there is evidence

273

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of the presence of Gypsies in Moldavia and Wallachia. In 1387 Mircen
I, Prince of Wallachia, renewed a grant that had been made by his uncle
Vladislav to the monastery of St. Anthony at Voditza of forty salaschj
(tents or families) of Atsegane.

Bataillard, who held the opinion that the Gypsies had reached Europe
in prehistoric times and that it was they who had brought the knowledge
of metallurgy to Europe, sought to prove that the alien people known
as Bemische, living in the bishopric of Wurzburg before 1400, were
Gypsies. Also, in 1348 Gypsies were present in Serbia. The records
and town accounts of the fifteenth century contain notices of payments
made to Gypsies in Central Europe.” There were Gypsy settlements at
Hildesheim in 1407, at Basle in 1414, and at Meissen in 1416. From
that time on there is no scarcity of records.

By 1438 thousands of Gypsies had begun to pour into Europe
overrunning Germany, Italy, and France. They were highly disciplined
and well led, and they travelled with astonishing speed. ‘They reached
France in 1419, arriving in Paris in 1427, in Britain about 1430, in Spain
by 1447, and in Russia in 1500. And within a few years of their arrival,
measures were being taken in every country for their suppression and
banishment.

Inevitably these people, who suddenly descended at about the same
time, were called by different names in different countries, although
they were most commonly known as Gypsies, Bohemians, and at one
time Saracens. They were called Assyrians or Ethiopians in England,
Ismaelites in Hungary and Romania, Tafem (Tartars) in German}
Talterain Sweden—remarkably close to the name ofa tribe of smiths 4
northern India called Tathera—Pagansin Bavaria and the Low Countne
Wanderers in Arab countries, Philistines in Poland, Luriin Iraq, Kari
and Zangi in Persia, Caraque and Romanichel in France, Cinghame y
Tchinganes in Turkey and Syria, and Katsiveloi, Tsiganos, Atsincants”

Athinganoi in Greece.” Most of these epithets were employed to ee
them out as foreigners and heretics.

‘There are some obvious and close resemblances between the
diaspora and the Gypsy dispersion. No other human migration in h i
can be compared with these two. Both peoples were reputedly gona
under a curse to wander about indefinitely. Both have been persec!

Jewish
jisto

274

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

throughout history and both have, in spite of it, stoutly managed to
preserve their distinctive identity. In a way the Gypsy diaspora has
been far more widespread even than that of the Jews. Inspired by such
superficial similarities, a relationship between the two has been suggested,
but this theory has never left the sphere of hypothesis or found any valid
support. Apart from a variety of differences of language and culture,
the Jews have never shunned sedentary civilization and have integrated
themselves into the national cultures of the lands of their adoption.

For several centuries after their first appearance in Europe, no
systematic study was made of the Romanies, and the history and culture
of these people remained heavily overlaid by a variety of myths, legends,
and fantastic hypotheses. It seems incredible that a people should have
lived so long in Europe, suffering general contempt and state persecution,
and yet not have attracted academic curiosity and attention. But then
Europe itself was in a state of transition and intellectual rejuvenation,
and was not well equipped, until the rise of comparative philology, to
seriously examine the Gypsy problem.

Some scholars of the Bible regarded Gypsies as the cursed descendants
of Cain, whereas others claimed Egyptian origin for them. But in either
of these views there is little evidence of a non-legendary nature. A
Major reason for attributing Egyptian origin to the Gypsies may well
have been the inexplicable mediaeval European custom of dubbing all
travelling showmen and mountebanks as “Egyptians.” With the passage
of time, it is not unlikely that the real usage of the term Egyptian was
forgotten, making it possible for its literal meaning to give rise to an
eee belief. A few of the Gypsy legends speak of their Egyptian
ene eee a doubtful if these legends were invented by the Gypsie:

uring a people who had lost all definite recollection of their ae

satis wanderings might easily incorporate the commonly
ate feyy ee Origin in some of their stones In any case, such oe is
ee not very definite. If early generations of Gypsies knew their
Sins, they did not transmit the knowledge to their descendants.
toe os appeared in Germany, however, they claimed to have
ower Egypt, doing penance, by a seven years wandering

Or the sj P Mea ies
and Gun their forefathers, who had refused hospitality to the Virgin

Co;

275

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Other legends pointing to their origin in the regions of Mesopotamia
and ancient Asia also do not withstand serious scrutiny.’ In contrast,
however, Gypsy legends identifying India as the country of their origin
are far more numerous and carefuly preserved. In Gypsy lore India is
commonly referred to as the Baro Than (the Great Land). One of their
legends, told with slight regional variations, claims their antiquity in
India as far back as the invasion of Alexander. They had to leave India
under the curse of a sorcerer, who condemned them to wander over the
face of the earth forever, never to sleep twice in the same place, never to
drink water twice from the same well, and never to cross the same river
twice in one year. There are also some old Persian legends which tell of
a people called Mutes coming from India before the time of Alexander.

Of all the evidence linking the Gypsies with India, the linguistic
one is the most important. Andrew Borde, an eccentric physician who
lived during the reign of Henry VIII, was the first person to make a
vocabulary of the Gypsy language in 1542 under the mistaken belief that
it was the current language of Egypt. In 1597 Bonaventura Valcanius,
in his curious book De Literis e¢ Lingua Getarum, also gave specimens
of Romani as Nubian. But it was in the eighteenth century that the
increasing contact with India led scholars to notice linguistic similaritiss
between the Romani and Indian languages; to investigate deeper into
the origins, manners, and customs of Gypsies; and finally to fix India’s
their original home. Itwas a fortunate accident of history thata Calvinist
cleric at Almas in Hungary, Stefan Valyi, met three Indian students
from Malabar whilst he was studying at the University of Leiden and
noticed the close resemblances between their language and that of the
Romanies of his country. He drew up a vocabulary of one thousant
Indian words, put it before some Gypsies at Raab, and found that dy
understood most of it. The publication of his unexpected, although
important, discovery in 1763 gave rise to further investigation woe
shattered the theory of the Romanies’ Egyptian origin, although “i
not remove the possibility that they might have come to Europe eu
of Egypt. J. C. Riidiger published his discoveries regarding the In p y
origin of Romanies in a book entitled Neuester Zuwachs der Sp am
in 1782. He was followed a year later by H. M. G. Grellmanm "i
much more copious work firmly established the Indian origin 0

276

a ee

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

It was translated into English at the beginning of this century and has
gsed through three editions.

According to John Sampson, however, it was an English scholar, Jacob
Bryant—and not Riidiger—who was the earliest to discover the Indian
the Romanies.”' It was not until 1844-45, however, when the

P a

origin of
German philologist, August Friedrich Pott, who strangely enough had
never come into contact with Gypsies, published his famous work. Die
Zijeuner in Europa und Asien, that the foundations for really scientific,
especially linguistic, research into the Gypsy question were laid. In
consequence, the theory of the Indian origin of the Gypsies came to be
systematically investigated and increasingly accepted. The study of the
Gypsy language was greatly helped by the development of comparative
philology, which came into vogue after the discovery of Sanskrit in the
early nineteenth century. Later, Alexandros Georgios Paspates (usually
called Paspati), Max Müller, Weislocki, von Sowa, Kopernicki, Franz
Miklosich, A. C. Woolner, and a host of other scholars who were
primarily philologists, agreed in assigning the birthplace of the Romani
language to India.

A major study was made by Paspati and published in 1870. He was a
Greek doctor of medicine but had devoted much of his life to the study
of the Gypsies, the Tshinghanes , of the Ottoman Empire. He believed
that the true history of Gypsies, especially in the absence of written
history and definite oral traditions, was to be found in their language.
The language of the Gypsies in Turkey was a kind of halfway house in
= path of evolution of the Romani language from India to the West.

ane Paspati’s able study proved to be of great value to the students
ioe Between 1872 and 1881, the Austrian philologist, Franz
~tlosich, published his monumental studies on Gypsies, specializing
in Romani dialects,

3 Meanwhile, George Borrow, in his novels Lavengro and The Romany
Je, published about 1845, and in The Gypsies in Spain, had told the
Public for the first time much about this subject, and his influence was
Sreat both in Engl d inl din awakening an
ieee ng an and on the European mainian g

Tiin S ypsy history and culture. $
and a sow n peon (1862-1931) was an eminent comparative philologist

nd classical scholar who devised an excellent phonetic alphabet

LUE

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

for writing spoken Welsh Romani. He devoted a lifetime of study to
the Gypsy language, and it took him thirty-two years of painstakin
effort before he could publish his work on Welsh Romani in 1926, The
Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. This was a major landmark in the study
of the subject, because the Gypsies of Wales preserved the purity of
their traditions most loyally, so much so that “they are almost the only
ones in the world to use Romani language in a state of purity, including
grammar and syntax.” Thus, philologists after careful research spread over
a century established a definite identity between the various dialects of the
Romani.” They also established a certain relationship amongst Romani,
Sanskrit, and the modern Indian languages. The resemblances are so close
and so numerous that even a non-specialist can detect them. More than
half of the fundamental vocabulary of Romani is related to languages
spoken today in northern India. Romani grammar and vocabulary cannot
be explained except by Sanskrit.

However, there is no general agreement on the exact locality of the
origin of Romani in India. Miklosich, in his Beitrage Zur Kenntniss der
Zigeunermundarten in 1878, argued that Romani had some kinship with
the Dard and Kafir dialects. His view was followed by Pischel and later
by J. Block in the brilliant introduction to his Formation de la Langue
Marathe. Sampson, however, opposed this connection of Romani with
the Dard group. A. C. Woolner connected Romani with languages
spoken farther into India and drew some striking parallels with Western
Indian Pahari. In Grellmann’s opinion, the original home of these people
was the same as that of the Jats, Pott, Bataillard, Trumpp, and Burton
also concluded that the relation between Romani and the dialect of i
modern Jats was so close that there could be no doubt that the roots
Romani lay in the north of India. De Goeje, relying on Arab chronicles,
believed that the Jats, Zotts, and Doms were related to Gypsies: John
Beames, an Indian civil Servant who was a reputed scholar of Sanskrit
considered the language more closely related to Sindi. The localities
suggested ranged from the Hindu Kush Mountains area to the n

region. A present-day authority on the Indo-European languages, i
Ralph Turner, however, has argued that Romani originally belon
to a central Indian group of dialects and subsequently migrated to i
northwestern group.” The problem remains unresolved mainly becat’

278

—---- —— —— +--+ -- oe

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

knowledge of the Indian dialects of the period when the Gypsies left
India is unavailable. But the fact that Romani appears to be related to
several dialects may suggest that the Gypsies were already a nomadic
eople at the time of their departure from India.

Although the Gypsies have no system of writing, they do possess a
comprehensive list of conventional signs which they use to communicate
with each other. This secret code is called pasrin and consists of items
chosen from nature, such as cocks’ feathers, pieces of trimmed wood,
etc, These are made into signs which can be carved or drawn on trees,
gates, and wood. Patrin in Romani means a leaf, and is related to Sanskrit
patra which is variously used for designating letter and leaf. By arranging
these signs in a certain way, one tribe can easily communicate with other
tribes along its route of travel.

Romani is related to Sanskrit in the same way as the Romance
languages are to Latin.

The following list of cardinal numbers illustrates the point:

Romani Hindi English
yek ek one
dui do two
tn tin three
star or chtar car four
Hee panc five
5 n che six
eft (haft in Persian) sat even
Okht-octo ath eight
nu $
disk nan nine
5 das ten

xX following are afew examples of Romani words with their Hindi and
nglish equivalents:

e Hindi English

yi z

yag ankh eye

kalo ag fire
kala black

279

|
|

ker kar to do, make |

kan kan ear

devata devata deity

nak nak nose

bal bal hair

rat rakt blood

tud dudh milk

marva marna to die

amaro hamara ours

gra ghora horse

dant dant teeth

lon lun salt

kameva kam love

than sthan land

mas mans meat

tu turn, tu you

chib jibh tongue

manush manush man

puro burha old

salo sala brother-in-law

phen bahin, Ghen sister

phral bhrata, bhai brother

dzamutro jamatar son-in-law

sasro sasur father-in-law

Sasuy sas mother-in-law

kak kaka uncle

The sentence is Senerally constructed In the same way in Romani and

Hindi. For example:

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Romani: Ja, kik kon chalavelo a vurdo,

Hindi: Ja, dekh kaun chalaaya dvar ko.

English: Go and see who has come to the door.
Romani: Main hun kalo,

Hindi: Main hun kala.

English: I am dark.

Romani: Mero sera dukkers,
Hindi: Mero sir dukhe.
English: My head aches.

280

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

Conjugations of verbs and declensions of nouns, etc., follow the
Hindi pattern. The feminine ending 7 is found in both. Romani has two
genders: 0 represents the masculine and 7 the feminine. For instance boro
Jo a great man, and bori rani, a great lady. In Romani the feminine of
talis kali, as in Hindi the feminine of kala is kali; in both the adjective
means “black.”

As in Hindi, the Gypsies use the same word (Kaliko) for tomorrow
and yesterday, which again is very close to Hindi kal (or kalko). Similarly,
Gypsy shoshoi signifies both hare and rabbit as does Sanskrit sasa. The
Gypsy habit of coining new words by compounding two or more words
is also reminiscent of the Sanskrit Sandhi Samasa system. However, the
Romani vocabulary is very limited, and it has few verbs.

It is inevitable that the Romani vocabulary should include a number of
words from the languages of those countries through which the Gypsies
wandered. There are, consequently, many words in Romani of Iranian,
Greek, and Armenian origin. Furthermore, the Gypsies from the time
of their arrival in Europe readily assimilated many words from Russian,
German, Polish, Hungarian, and other languages. In fact, the careful
scrutiny of these borrowings has been the chief means of establishing
their routes of dispersion. For example, as the language of the Gypsies
of Finland contains Swedish words, but not Russian, scholars have
concluded that the Gypsies entered Finland from the west. The presence
of over two thousand Arabic words in the Romani dialect of the Spanish
Gitanos confirms their passage to Spain through Arabia and North
Africa. The presence of as many as two hundred Greek words in all the
European Romani dialects suggests that Gypsies spent a good deal of
ume in Greece before spreading over Europe.

a: most legends suggest, metal working, including bronze, gold,
It Sone stones, has always been the principal vocation of oS
ete own that the art of metallurgy was widespread and very
ciently practiced in ancient India. Some of the tools used by
oe a technique employing forge and simple goatskin ae
India, A Poor they engrave are used even today by ea tri A

the S = the mythical association of the practice of met a
A ville ions of those possessed by the devil is reminiscent of indian
8y. Gypsies are regarded in Europe today as amongst the most

281

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

highly accomplished and skilled enamellers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, and
blacksmiths. They are also good mechanics and motor vehicle dealers,

Fortune-telling is invariably associated with Gypsies, although only
their women tell fortunes and they practice the art only on non-Gypsies,
It appears that despite pronouncements of disbelief and even derision,
people still flock to wandering Gypsies to listen eagerly to their forecasts
Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald testifies that he had his fortune told by Gypsies
on more than one occasion with remarkable accuracy.

It is significant that the professions practiced by the Gypsies are exactly
the ones which were prescribed for the outcaste in caste-ridden Indian
society. If the list of curses and occupational prohibitions contained in
the Manusmriti (the Laws of Manu) is consulted, it will be seen that
Gypsies have followed precisely those occupations condemned by Manu.
Trading in horses or cows; driving wagons; professional dancing, singing,
or playing instruments; training elephants, bulls, horses, or camels; and
gambling and professional fortune-telling were amongst the occupations
forbidden to upper caste people. Those who engaged in these or similar
vocations were driven into the ranks of the depressed castes or outcastes,
and required to dwell in the mountains and woods. The Gypsies, however
did not adopt all the professions prohibited by Manu; they chose the ones
which suited their nomadic way of life. The combination of the Gypsy
Occupations of smith and musician is reminiscent of some Indian tribes
which occupy an unenviable lower power position in the caste hierarchy;
for example, the Ghasis, the Luris, and the Asuras.

The code of Manu is, however, extremely complex and intricate. It
classifies mixed castes and other outcastes into a wide variety of catego",
and accordingly prescribes professions and other laws for each one o
them. Ifa detailed analysis is made of the professions prohibited by Manu,
as well as by other ancient Indian law-makers, and if these professions are
correlated with those Practiced by various Gypsy groups, some fur n
light may be thrown on the origins of Gypsies, Its possible that they ™*!
emerge as the offspring of intercaste

the descendants of the depressed classes. The name, Zingary, which ie
Gypsies bore when they first appeared in Germany and which is stillin

use, is in fact a derivative of the Sanskrit word (Varna) sankara, meaning
children of mixed castes or of adul

i than
marriages or of outcastes rather

terous union.

282

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

since the Gypsy heritage of laws and customs was transmitted
orall ; á $
be identified with ancient Indian practices. If they are a people who
were expelled from India as outcastes, or who emigrated under priestly
it is not surprising that all Gypsies have a peculiar dislike

y, its origin is naturally somewhat blurred. Yet many of them can
J? d

persecution,
of priests. Yet, wise and learned men, called rashey, reminiscent of the

Indian rishi, occupy, as in India, a highly esteemed place in Gypsy society.
Amongst the authentic signs on the sceptre of a Gypsy tribal chiefis the
irisbul (trident), the insignia of Siva. Gypsy chiefs are still called Thakur.
They regard excommunication from the tribe, as did the Hindus from the
caste, as the most severe punishment that can be inflicted.” An expelled
Gypsy can be rehabilitated, as could a Hindu outcaste, by going through
a process of repentance and restitution prescribed by the tribe elders. In
both groups membership is strictly hereditary, and the collective authority
of the group is supreme, exercised either by a chief or a council of elders.
The elders of the tribe are addressed respectfully as kako, meaning uncle,
a Hindi word of the same meaning. The feminine version of the tribal
chief is called phuri dai, which in Hindi is burhi dai, the old lady. The
Gypsy council of elders is clearly a replica of the Indian panchayat, and
the Gypsy chief corresponds to the head of the panchayat. The Gypsy
family system is a joint one, as is the Hindu, embracing parents, children,
aunts, uncles, and all kinds of cousins. Likewise, property belongs to the
family and not to the individual.

Even in the primarily Gypsy traditions, taboos, beliefs, superstitions,
social customs and manners, many Indian: counterparts can be seen. The
Cypy's love for and importance attached to the horse, and the injunction
ne ane horses or eating horsemeat, except amongst the Gitanos
2 Po ave parallels in several Indian tribes. Surprisingly, Gypsies
eee fea despite their abiline in horse training and ann
a ae Rew with many Indians, Gypsies regard dogs an aa
during a mochardi). Gypsy women are also regarded ae ar a
a S A pregnant Gypsy genar is treated n care x
Bend: Bee as Suggested in the Hindu Kama Sutra, het ee :
sightin the b ek picture icons of gods and goddesset R
To F e that the child will be castin a similar image of physi 7

-A woman in childbirth is regarded as unclean until the chil

283

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

is christened and this ritual is somewhat similar to one prevalent Amongst

arranged hy
groom and

atmosphere,
Gypsy courtship is extremely brief and restrained. Hindus, however, haye

no courtship at all. The Gypsy marriage ceremony is accompanied by
elaborate ritual and feasting. Although divorce exists, Gypsy marriage
is a sacred bond as is the Hindu. Sterility is the greatest misfortune
possible for a Gypsy woman, and some of their ceremonial cures, such
as the marriage between the trees planted by the childless couple, are
common in India. The planting of a grove of trees is generally held by
Hindus as a religious work. The Gypsies in Germany honour the fir
tree, the birch, and the hawthorn, and in Wales venerate the fascinating
vegetable growth known to them as the ġroado koro. The Gypsy method
of foretelling the sex ofa child by casting grains of maize into a basin and
observing the way they settle was a custom practiced in vedic India. By
no means fond of bathing, Gypsies have ideas of ritual purity somewhat
like those of the Hindus.

Gypsies have displayed an adaptability towards the religious beliefs
of the countries in their paths. Hence, there are Christians and Muslims
of various denominations amongst them. Many practice their faith with
deep devotion, They call the Bible the Sastra, the Sanskrit name for
scriptures, Underneath, however, all of them enthusiastically retain the
peculiar heritage of their ancient beliefs, and it is in these traditional
beliefs that Indian parallels are seen.

Strict monotheists, Gypsies use a word of Indian origin O’Devel (of
O’ Del or O'Delore), which is translated as he God. Somewhat like the
early Rig Vedic Aryans who composed the “Song of Creation,” they a
not conceive of God as the creator of the universe. The universe 0" m
earth, phu (Sanskrit bhu), has always existed independently. The Gyp%
worship of Sara is significantly reminiscent of a Hindu form of worship:
The Gypsies call Sara the Kali, which is the name of the Hindu go
of power, and, during the period of worship, take turns in a night ot

vigil over the statue of Sara in the church with bare feet but covered he
a Hindu custom.” Gypsies seldom need cathedrals and altars for worship:
Images placed in a corner of their caravans are regarded as adequat®

the primitive castes in India. Gypsy marriages are generally
the parents, and early marriage is common. Both the brid
the bride are customarily bashful, and, despite the European

284

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

this they again reflect the Hindu way of worship. Whilst the Hindus
often go to temples, they do not have an overwhelming need for them
and most Hindu homes have a small corner reserved for prayers.

Although generally unconcerned about the unknown world or the
next life, Gypsies believe in Karma and some kind of continuation of life
after death. They accept the fluctuations of fortune with resignation and
unconcern. This perhaps explains why they have retained their innate
cheerfulness, despite repeated persecutions and injustices.’ Terms such
as fatva (the first principle, the reality) and mukti (liberation) are familiar
to them, although their actual significance has become somewhat blurred
over the centuries.

Evidence of similarities between many of the Gypsy tribes of Europe
and existing communities in India is both vast and varied. The Gypsy
name for themselves, Rom, is linked with the Dom tribe in India. Dom
became Lom in Armenia, and then Rom. These names are in exact
phonetic correspondence with the Sanskrit domba and the modern
Indian dom, which means “a man of low caste who gains his living
by singing and dancing.” Charles Leland first suggested in English
Gypsies and their Language that the true origin of the Roms (or Romani)
was to be found amongst the Doms, a very low caste of India, which
sprang from the Domar, a mountain tribe of shepherd-robbers. Later,
tesearches by Grierson amongst the Bihari Doms went far to confirm
this conjecture. He discovered that there existed in India a wandering
tribe known as Trab/us, who called themselves Roms, and who were in
all respects identical with the Syrian and European Gypsies. The Doms
of modern India are vagrant tribes, found mainly in Bihar and in the
gee northwest areas, and they have many features in common with
ie Pe They wander about with tattered reed tents which eu
similar ee ee of villages. Some of them make bake p an i
ake A 4 eS and in DEBS, where they form a considera k p
smiths ae ae, but still constitute the lower caste, they are ae
me as ees workers. They are today Doma and Doms and the
“smith” a ae bere no more racial significance than, n Pe
nine Back Ss One of the explanations of the origin o. > e tri :
Merely mesn that it imitates the sound oF a drum or tomtom. Í om may

a professional musician, or it may simply be applied to any

285

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and every outcaste tribe.” Present-day Doms are described as sleeping
dreaming, sitting, talking, gambling, smoking, drinking, fighting, and
above all, singing. They improvise songs, play various instruments, and
dance immodestly. This description might fit various primitive races but
not to the same degree as it fits the Gypsies.

Close parallels between the Romanies of Europe and various other
Gypsy-like tribes of India have been noted. Lovari in eastern Europe
corresponds with Lahar in India, Sinti with Sindhis—although the
Sindhi are not a tribe but a linguistic group—Zotts with Jats. Again,
there are several Indian tribes which approximate Gypsies closely in both
appearance and way of life, such as the Asuras; Luris; Ghasis; Kamis, the
smiths and metal workers of Nepal: Kasars or Kasera, the copper smelters
and metal workers of northern India; Koravas of South India; Banjaras
of Bombay; Chharas; Thatharas; and others. Of these the Luris and the
Doms have been the most extensively studied.

Parallels between Gypsy and Indian folklore also invite attention.
The publication of Gypsy Folk-Tales by Francis Hindes Groome in 1899
brought to light a wealth of hitherto unexplored stories. In asserting the
significance of identical tales, allowance must be made for the fact that
many stories, in spite of their numerous variations, are common to all
Indo-Europeans, that many Indian tales had travelled to Europe throug!
other routes, and that the Romanies have freely borrowed tales from
the lands they visited. Therefore, it is not always possible to definitely
identify a Gypsy tale as having a purely Indian origin. Yet, there ae
few examples, typical of the Indian and the Gypsy traditions, and foreign
to other intervening cultures, which suggest a possible direct link. ie
cxamploytlie Gypsy tales “God and the Woodcutter” and “Jack and p
Cabbage have Indian analogues in “The Weaver and the Prophecy a

The Weaver and the Watermelon,” A Gypsy legend as to how a
made the different races of man has a striking parallel in an Indian myt:
According to the Nagas, a hill tribe in northeastern India, God made?
model of man and slipped him into the oven. Being new at the job,
took the model out too soon, and the pale and pasty creature bn
the white man. The next time, afraid of repeating the mistake, he :
it too long and the outcome was the Negro. The third time, he om n
it accurately and the result was the perfect brown man, the Indian:

286

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

the Gypsy version the perfect man, naturally, was the ancestor of the
Gypsies.”* Both the importance the Gypsies attach to the art of story-
telling, and their insistence on following a set pattern, are somewhat
niniscent of traditional story-telling in India.

If the mediaeval wandering jugglers, story-tellers, and entertainers,
in whose songs specimens of the oldest secular folk music are found, are
considered to be early Gypsies, the Gypsy influence on Western folklore
would appear to be considerable. The Gypsy musicians and showmen who
have been travelling about in western Europe for several centuries easily
resemble a similar class which existed there in mediaeval times. This class
consisted of itinerant showmen, mountebanks, jugglers, story-tellers,
singers, dancers, and the like. They appeared suddenly in large numbers
in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and England. In Germany they were
considered vagrants and tramps. In France, especially in Provence and
Normandy, they were known as jongleurs and menestriers, men who
were clowns, acrobats, or musicians, and who recited fables and stories
to the accompaniment of music. In England they were called minstrels,
and they sang, danced, joked, tossed balls and knives. Gypsy showmen
today are clowns, story-tellers, and they recite poems and fables to the
accompaniment of music. In fact, the Kurds call Gypsies 4 shud, from the
Turkish Ashek, meaning a story-teller. In Italy these travelling showmen
Save performances similar to the Gypsies of today who frequently visit
the fairs and country districts of southern Italy. They play, dance, sing,
perform acrobatic and riding feats, toss balls and knives, walk on stilts,
and do other jugglers’ tricks; and they have trained bears, monkeys and
other animal acts, ‘They are expert at training all kinds of animals for public
Pet and many Gypsies are found today in the circus world.
dete ee have described these itinerant entertainers as the
es ane 7 z 5 and comedians ee ee the A E
“what had been meres T pee ee = Te be = a tel
that there were such sh macnn eee th R Empire but
they ae c 5 owmen and musician in the Roman : fe
Mons i ed in Asia, for Rome had imported large numbers of Asian

oth before and after the beginning of the Christian era.

en the players moved about in companies, women and children
d part of the troupe, the former taking part in the performances as

rer

orme

287

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

dancers and singers, skilfully using the Asian tambourine and Egyptian
clapper in their wanton dances. Although this was about fifteen hundred
years ago, there is no other class of showmen today, except the Gypsies,
who roam about Europe with their families performing for their
livelihood. Some mediaeval wanderers were employed by the nobility
as couriers, bearing secret messages or professions of love, Similarly,
Gypsies have traditionally been employed as spies, messengers, and
“go-betweens,” in both Asia and Europe, and Gypsy women in Egypt,
as elsewhere, are noted for arranging meetings for lovers. There were
two main types of minstrels in England: those in the service of a coun
and those who wandered about freely. Both types persisted even in the
Elizabethan period, when Gypsies reputedly appeared in England, at
which point the minstrels faded away.

Whilst these wandering showmen were very popular—in fact,
indispensible at court festivals, feasts, tournaments, and other gatherings
—and their art was regarded as traditional, they were treated with
contempt and denied civil tights. They were tolerated, but not given
the real protection of law. Upon sustaining physical injury they could
not even claim redress or charge their assailant. Like the Gypsies, thes
people retained their romantic spirit throughout the Middle Ages
whilst remaining homeless outcasts. Even the Church excluded them
from partaking in communion and the sacraments. The Church saw!”
their secular music, in their instinctive and genuine love of life and l
pleasures, and in their indomitable determination to hold on to the!
way of life, a serious danger to the spiritual well-being of its follower
If these minstrels were the early Gypsies of Europe, the hostility of the
Church towards them could explain some of the later persecution :
the Gypsies in European countries, as well as the Gypsy desire êt S
to appear as Christians. i

Whilst the Gypsies borrowed cultural traits from their Cae
countries, they also inevitably transmitted many of theis ae
characteristics, some of which are now completely unrecognizable
is interesting to note that the Gypsies, afraid of water, neve! ; a
invented bait for fishing lines, Adept with their hands and nimble y
their feet, it is not surprising that the Gypsies have produced oe $
the bull fighters in Spain, and, in the bare-knuckle days of boxing ”

288

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

were a power in the British professional ring. Jem Driscoll, a remarkable
boxer commonly known as a Welshman, was really a Gypsy.” Gypsy
women, such as Zora Kostich, have been famous for their breathtaking
horse riding tricks in the circus.

If the various Romani dialects borrowed abundantly from the
vocabularies of the countries they passed through, they have also
contributed in some degree to the enrichment of European languages.
The secret slang of evil-doers has drawn most profitably from Gypsy
sources. The early history of English slang and cant, the language of the
underworld, is obscure, but the impact of the Gypsy language during
the early sixteenth century stimulated the English to improve their own
rude and scanty jargon. Although the Gypsy contribution to canting was
not extensive, it was much larger than many writers on the subject have
supposed. A number of the most characteristic English slang words, such
as row, shindy, tool (in driving), mash (i.e., to fascinate), pal, chivvy, and
especially the term “slang” itself are Romani.™ “Slang” was derived from
the Hindi swang (artificial or a show). In the middle of the nineteenth
century slang was used to mean a travelling show.

Slang easily advances to the rank of accepted popular language, and
there are many English words which owe their origin to Romani. For
example: the English words, pal, cosh, bloke, jockey, are derived from
Romani.” The English dick, meaning to see, is found in all Gypsy
dialects, Its Hindi equivalent is dekh. Shakespeare’s character Caliban is
the Gypsy name for “darkness,” “blackness,” katiben.

The Spanish Gitanos have evolved a distinct dialect of their own called
calo, which has left many traces in everyday Spanish. For example: gacho,
ane ae and its feminine Sachi, meaning mistress; gili oe
ee en SE) chunga (fun, joke); mangante (beggar, vagabond);

y); and manteca (butter).

nee of Gypsy contributions to French, made chiefly ee the
Baise ele a long one. If some wads of Romani origin, whic were
thers ae ang vocabulary in Balzac’s time, have now become extinct
sallo suc = vee have survived, although their “bohemian ae is
ne as in X w 7 aes example, the word bath (popular term for a 7

luck. A ne. St bath!) is pare Romani. Bakht meme luck, usually ee
is proposed saying, “Bakht to ke!” (Good luck be on you!)

289

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

This is the araka of the Arabs which, in its original Indian form, bhakti
carried with it a more subtle meaning of devout abandon or devotion
to the Divinity. There are some twenty to thirty French words currently
used which can be traced to Romani with certainty, such as berge (ear)
from ers ; surin (knife) from churi; rupin (rich) from rup (money, as in
the Indian rupee); ouste (an exclamation, as in Allons, ouste! Come, let’s
go! or Let’s get a move on!) from uste/ (Get up!); and costaud (strong,
strapping, hefty) from kusto (strong).** The term bohemian, popularized
by Murger in La Vie de Bohème, comes from the French word for Gypsy,
employed to portray the gay, Gypsy-like, lives of youthful groups of poets,
painters, and musicians.

Deriving from Indian castes to whom formal education was denied,
Romanies are not a learned people. Their significant contribution has
been in those spheres where they have gained a certain proficiency, such
as metal working, music, and dancing. Whilst it is common knowledge
that the art of metallurgy was widespread in ancient India, it is not
definitely known when and how it first appeared in Europe. According to
Gabriel de Mortillet, an eminent prehistorian, European metallurgy owes
its origins to the immigration of nomad peoples, presumably Gypsies.
“Jules Bloch even pinpoints the fact that the link between India and
Greece was made by the cauldron makers, the Gaordari of Astarabad,
south of Caspian, and the Gypsies of the Khorassan (northeast of
Iran), who were chain makers and, at the same time, makers of combs
and sieves.” Some scholars ascribe the rise of European metallurgy to
the Phoenicians, but Paul Bataillard (1814-1894), the French writer,
maintains that the credit for introducing bronze into Europe belongs
to the Gypsies. It is also possible that the adventurous Phoenician
seafarers learned much of their handicraft from the travelling Sygyo
who camped in their towns and villages, and are described by Homet
as a wandering tribe beloved by Vulcan, the god of furnaces, because of
their great skill in metal work.

Franz de Ville carries Bataillard’s theory even further and states that
it appears certain that the Gypsies made bronze in Europe.” He cites
in support of this theory the evidence of the weapons and jewellery

recently excavated along the Baltic, ornamented with the swastihar
an original Indian symbol.“ Well before the advent of Nazism som

290

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

Norweigan Gypsies had the swastika tatooed on their right shoulder.
Musical instruments called lures, which are of foreign origin and have
been skilfully smelted, have been found at the same location.

Music plays an extremely important part in Gypsy life. Irrespective of
his profession, every Gypsy—except possibly some English Gypsies—
knows how to play the violin. Many Central European Gypsy songs
express the utmost veneration for the violin. Their regard for musical
instruments is so great they never sell them. Their intense love for music
has been known throughout the world for centuries. It should be recalled
that the ten thousand Luris who went over to Iran at the invitation of
Bahram Gur were accomplished musicians and expert lute players. There
are also early documents referring to the musical abilities of the Gypsies
in Europe. In Scotland, they danced for King James in Holyrood Palace,
and in France they danced at the court of Louis XIII, in spite of a decree
forbidding their entry to the kingdom. In the second interlude of Le
Malade Imaginaire, Moliere speaks of Egyptians, presumably Gypsies,
dressed like Moors, who mingle songs with dances. Even today Gypsy
musicians are found everywhere. Hungarian music is greatly indebted
to the Gypsies. This is equally true of Romania, Bessarabia, Bulgaria,
Turkey, and the whole Balkan Peninsula. In Serbia, Herzegovina,
Bosnia, and Croatia, Gypsy musicians and music are as popular as they
are in Hungary. The intense love of the Russians for their Gypsy singers
and choruses is well known. The Russian Gypsy songs, such as “Ochi
Chorniya” (“Dark Eyes”), are known and sung universally. In Spain many
of the large Gitano population are musicians, singers, and dancers, and
some have risen to positions of eminence in the musical field. In Persia,
where there are well over one hundred thousand Gypsies, practically
all of the public musicians, singers, and dancers are Gypsies. They are

own as Karachi, Luli, Luri, and Mutrib. In Syria, Mesopotamia, and
Egypt, where Gypsies are called Nuri, Rawazi, and Alimah, the story is
much the same.

The Gypsies mentioned by Firdusi and the Arab historian, Hamza,
Were expert lute players, and it has been suggested that it was possibly
ayy who introduced the lute to Europe. The name of the instrument
z borrowed from the Arabic al-ud, literally meaning wood. But there
!S some doubt that the Gypsies were responsible our introducing this

291

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

instrument to Europe, although it is certain that the lute is of Indian
origin. At the time of the Arab conquest of Persia, Persian music was
a highly developed art. The Arabs took Indo-Persian music with them
to other areas which they occupied, such as Syria, Egypt, North Africa,
and Spain. They also took with them a musical instrument, called rebab,
which was the forerunner of the modern violin.

The guitar, a unique instrument of the lute class capable of playing
both harmony and melody simultaneously, and which is indispensable
to Gitano musicians, is a variation of the Indian sitar (or cithara), which
has mobile frets, and the zambura, which does not. There are different
theories about the introduction of the guitar (or guitarra) into Spain.
One theory suggests it was brought by the Arabs, whereas another
suggests that it was derived from the Roman cithara of Graeco-Asian
origin, which was brought to Spain by the Roman conquerors before
the advent of the Arabs. Spanish texts of the Middle Ages mention two
types of guitar, the Latina and the Morisca (Moorish). The earlier guitar
was essentially the same stringed instrument that it is today, having an
incurved body shaped like the number eight, with flat top and bottom
and a finger board with frets, and was played directly by the fingers. It
originally had four strings, a fifth was added later on, and was very similar
to the Spanish guitar of today. Later, a sixth string was added and tuned
in “e” like the first, but two octaves lower.

‘The Spanish guitar, whilst ideal in some ways, does not perfectly
suit the needs of the Gitanos. The Gypsy style of playing has its ow?
distinctive character, the main element of which is rhythm, and the
fundamental mood, whether gay or sad, is that of passion. Each type
of Gypsy song has its own special accompaniment. In the éaranta, for
instance, the guitar plays an important role. The guitar gives @ long
prelude and postlude, but remains silent during the singing, of, at we
most, plays a few scattered notes. Guitar and voice give the impression
of being independent of each other. This is essential, especially in the
deeper and more Gypsy-like varieties, in which glides and microton®
play an important part. The fixed keys of the instrument are construct?
on the guitar system which does not allow it to follow the voice, and the
guitar has to play the role of bridging the pauses between verses: _ e

The typical Gypsy instrument is partly made of cypress in order t0 8"

292

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

allic tone. Often a clamp is put across the neck at varying intervals

ita met
he length of the strings and make the tone still more brilliant.

to shorten t
Gypsies, who cannot afford this clamp, often use a knife tied in place by a

handkerchief instead." The ideal instrument for accompanying this type
of cante gitano would be either the Indian sitar or the sambura, which is
the name used by the nomads and some eastern Gypsies for any kind of
guitar.” An instrument of the same name is in use amongst some of the
Balkan Gypsies, with the frets so arranged that one may play microtones.
It is probable that the Gypsies brought it with them from India.

In the Balkans, mainly in Bulgaria, the Gypsies have borrowed the
cobza, a sort of lute with pizzicato strings, and the naiou (pipes of Pan).
In Romania they use the /simbal, a rudimentary and portable piano. This
instrument, which Liszt calls the zymbala (cimbalum), and which is an
ancestor of the Western keyboard instruments, appears to be of Indian
origin (svara-mandala), and it seems very likely that it was the Gypsies
who brought it into southern Europe in the fifteenth century.“ Also,
according to Elizabeth Robbins Pennell, the Gypsies introduced the
bagpipe into Europe.

Other instruments greatly appreciated by the Gypsies are the drums
and tambourine. Considering that Asia furnished the West with a
number of wind, string, and percussion instruments, such as the flute,
trumpet, horn, bagpipe, cymbal, drum, psaltery, harp, and lute, which
were popular with itinerant musicians, it would not be surprising if
some of these originated in India. Amongst the percussion instruments,
numerous kinds of drums dominate the musical scene in India. Of these,
the mridangam is the most common, and probably the most ancient; the
tabla (an Arabic term), equally popular in northern and central India,
is almost similar to a mridanga but is divided in the middle with each
of the two parts sealed at the bottom. Although the tambourine is not
exclusively Gypsy or Asian, since it is found everywhere in Mediterranean
countries, the use the Gypsies make of it suggests that it is of Indian
origin. The tambourine is still reserved either for women to accompany
the dances, or for bear leaders to give rhythm to the movements of the

animal. In India, whilst drums are used in numerous forms and ways,
cS dholak version is principally played by women, and damaru is used
or the animal dance.

293

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

In some countries of Europe where the number of Gypsies Was

small, Britain and France for example, Gypsy music was not much
appreciated; in others, such as Hungary and Spain, it made a great
impact. Franz Liszt, who knew Gypsies and who had made a close study
of their music, regarded all Hungarian music as simply Gypsy music.
A modern music critic, Sinclair, agrees with this opinion and even
suggests that this “statement can be applied to Rumania and Bessarabia
with almost as much truth as to Hungary. It is the same in Bulgaria,
European Turkey, and the whole Balkan peninsula.”* Other scholars
advocate the originality of Hungarian music. At the beginning of this
century, two musicians, Béla Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly, emphasized the
independence of Hungarian music by exhuming melodies and rhythms
different from those of Gypsy music and authentically Hungarian.
‘The protagonists of the priority of Gypsy music, however, cite ancient
documents, which clearly record the presence of Gypsy musicians of
high reputation in Hungary and do not mention any other musicians at
all. Reference is found in an official register that Gypsy musicians were
in the service of Queen Beatrice of Aragon at the end of the fifteenth
century. They often played in the palaces, in most great celebrations
and processions, and nearly every nobleman owned a Gypsy orchestra.
From the seventeenth century, at the courts of the noblemen and at
village dances alike, Gypsies accompanied the singing of kuruc (songs)
with their cymbalums, Pipes, and violins. Because of their extremely
popular rhythmic chants, the Gypsy singers Michel Varna and his
granddaughter Panna Cinka gained fame throughout Europe. They even
played the violin for the armies marching into battle. At the end of the
eighteenth century they made a specialty of playing the Verbunkos, the
famous dance of the recruiting sergeants which marked the renaissance
of Hungarian music,47

The Hungarian csardas is similar to Gypsy dances, and has a peculiar
step (knocking the heels together) found in some Eastern dances:
According to Liszt, no one can play or dance the csardas like the Gyps!*
themselves. Gypsy music in Hungary has been developed to an almost
unequalled state of perfection in composition and execution. Their mus
soft, sweet, weird, and wailing, can suddenly transform into the fief
wild, fiery strains of a battle song or csardas. Some of the most famous

294

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

violin performers in the world have been Gypsies, amongst them the
nineteenth-century virtuoso, Eduard Remenyi.*

Although a certain amount of specialization exists amongst the Gypsy
entertainers, the majority are skilled dancers as well as singers. It is
likely that the first Gypsy dancers from India were professionals, but it
is equally possible that the origin of Gypsy dances is ritualistic, and that
“in some way they represent an everyday or commonplace rendering of
the sacred dances of Vedic India.”*” The Romanian “Dance of the Kalus”
(sticks), also known in Hungary as the Stick Dance (Rovl’enca Khelen),
is reminiscent of the chatia dance, which with regional variations, is
widespread in India. The English Morris (Moorish) dance is said to
have been inspired by Gypsies, although the Romanies of Britain have
never rivalled the musical skill of their fellow Romanies of Hungary,
Spain, or Russia.

In Spain conditions for the growth of Gypsy music were particularly
suitable. For centuries Spain was under Arab domination, and during
this time the country, especially the southern part, absorbed many
Asian characteristics. The presence of the Jews, another Semitic race,
also aided this absorption. During the Islamic period music became
a highly cultivated art, especially in Seville. Gypsies arrived in Spain
nearly half a century before the expulsion of the Muslims and the
Jews, and it was only natural that their Asian music and dancing were
appreciated. The ease with which the Gypsies took to flamenco music
would suggest that Hispano-Arabic music was similar to their own. It
must be remembered that the Gypsies reached Spain by the same route
as the Arabs had before them. Consequently, whilst they borrowed from
flamenco as easily as they contributed to it, Gypsy music in Spain has
retained much of its original flavour. It is said that in matter of pure
thythm Spanish Gypsies have few equals. In accompanying a song or
dance by only handclapping, they attain an astonishing variety of complex
rhythms. Many Spanish dances, such as the bolero, the fandango, the
Seguidilla, and the malaguena, seem to be of Asian origin. The saraband,
the name of one Spanish dance, is a Persian word derived from the
beautiful saraband Persian carpet. Spanish folk music is commonly
tegarded as one of the richest in the world, mainly because a variety of
foreign influences have mingled with it, including that of the Gypsies.

295

DA

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Most of the Gypsies settled in Andalusia and the Andalusian influence
predominates in Spanish music.

Although Gypsy music scores are not written down—except by
non-Gypsies—their musical themes have gained widespread fame
throughout Europe. Many lesser-known as well as eminent composers
such as Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms occasionally used
Gypsy themes.” Gypsy music fascinated Wilhelm Friedemann Bach,
the eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Once a teacher of mathematics
and organist at Halle, Wilhelm left everything to follow a tribe of Gypsy
musicians. Scholarly opinion is somewhat divided over the question of
Gypsy influence on either Spanish flamenco or east European music,
Scholars have hesitated to make definite statements, partly because it is
extremely difficult to isolate the importations or alien elements in music.
Yet, there are themes in both Hungarian and Spanish music which are
clearly of alien origin. At the same time, Hungarian and Spanish Gypsy
music have common peculiar characteristics. And, as Spain and Hungary
are at opposite ends of western Europe, the mutual similarity must be
due to a common third source, which, in this case, would appear to be
more likely Gypsy than any other. It is also significant that the musical
accomplishments of Spain became noteworthy after the advent of Gypsies
in the country in 1447. Unless one insists on a series of unexplained
coincidences, the theory of Gypsy inspiration in music must command
serious attention.
In Indian and Spanish Gypsy music there is, unlike in Western music,
a luxuriance of cross rhythms, a freedom, a richness, a fluidity, and å
multiplicity of rhythms, whereas harmony is much neglected.” Similarly,
the characteristic thythms, elaborate ornamentation, and quarter tones;
unknown to Western music, are common to both Hungarian Gypsy and
Indian music. Hungarian Gypsies employ various scales or modes ner
used in Western music, for example c, d, e, f#, g, a, b. They employ
the minor scale the augmented fourth, the minor sixth, and the m4 jor
seventh. Often they also use the minor seventh and the dominant with
an augmented fifth. Asian music, Arabian for example, contains the
same peculiarities. Indian and Gypsy melodies have many similarin®
which are easier to perceive than to explain. Both in Indian and Gyps)
music melodic themes are more fluid and complex than they are E

296

ia

ROMANIES: LORDS OF THE OPEN COUNTRY

European music. Gypsy melodies, like the Indian, are elusive, delicate,
and subtle. The Indiana of the Spanish Gypsies corresponds to the
Indian Bhairavi. The use of microtones, such as quarter and third tones,
is alien to Western, but common to Gypsy and Indian music. For this
reason it is almost impossible to transcribe Spanish Gypsy folk songs,
as it is Indian songs, by the European system of notation and to play
them on European instruments with fixed keys. Grace notes and the use
of the flowing glide, producing what the Indians call “curves of sound,”
are essential to Spanish Gypsy music as well as to Indian. The melody
seems to flow like water in a river, rising and falling in rapids, halting in
still pools, and dashing over falls. Even in the orchestral music of the
Gypsies, harmony and counterpoint play a subordinate role to rhythm
and melody. Liszt states that in the Hungarian Gypsy orchestra the violin
is really a solo instrument, the rest of the instruments merely intensify
its shadows and illuminate its joys. Both Indian and Gypsy music are
relatively indifferent to the quality of the tone. In contrast, Western
music pays much attention to it. Although the Gypsies charmed people
throughout Europe with their music, it received its warmest reception
and accommodation in those countries which already had some tradition
of Eastern music.

Musical improvisation is a favourite art amongst the Gypsies of Spain.
In India, whilst waiting for the marriage feast to begin, the Doms will
often take turns at improvising. In fact, improvisation in music and
poetry is quite common in India, and is sometimes even expected by the
audience as a light touch in a serious performance.

On the whole, the dances of the Gypsies in Spain appear to be nearer
those of India than those of Spain. As in India, great emphasis is laid
on the graceful curving movements of the fingers, the hands, and the
arms which glide through the air like winged snakes, whilst the feet,
in a violently contrasting tempo, drum a devil’s tattoo. In the dances
of Andalusia, the movements of arms and hands, and the play of the
body muscles, are especially prominent. The combination of song and
dance, the cries of “Ole! Ole!” echoed from all directions to animate the
performer, the rapid gyrations, the undulations of the body suggesting
dunes of sand or wind-blown fields of ripe wheat, all characteristic
of the entertainments given by families of Indian Gypsies, have their

297

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

definite counterparts in the zambras and danzas given by the Git
of Granada.”

A classic performance of Gypsy women is the snake dance, whic}

anos

nis
often confused with the “belly dance” of Arab women. But, as Martin

Block has pointed out, this dance is not at all erotic, because Gypsy
women, unlike their Arabian counterparts, never dance undraped, Like
the Indian woman dancer, the Spanish dancer dresses unrevealingly,
thus making herself more mysterious and inviting. References are found
in European literature which confirm that the relationship between the
Gypsy and Indian dances was at least vaguely recognized. For instance,
the Badminton volume on dancing quotes Walter Thornbury (Life in
Spain): “Seville is the headquarters of the gipsy girl who is going to show
us how the Egyptian ghawassees and the Hindoo nautch girls dance. She
will dance the Romalis, which is the dance Tiberius may have seen, and
which no one but a gipsy dances in Spain. She will dance it to the old
Oriental music and handclapping and to an old religious Eastern time,

low and melancholy, diatonic, not chromatic, and full of sudden pauses,
which are strange and startling.”>*

298

Chapter VIII

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM
IN CENTRAL ASIA

ONE OF THE remarkable characteristics of early Asian history—in fact
of the ancient world until the Christian suppression of non-Christian
religions in the Roman Empire—was the receptivity to cultural ideas
regardless of their nationality, and a lack of religious bigotry. Prejudice
against a foreign belief was uncommon; it certainly was never strong
enough to cause total rejection of a different faith. The civilized peoples
of those days seem to have implicitly accepted the proposition that
there were numerous approaches to truth, and, without any false sense
of pride or violated nationalism, they readily accepted knowledge, alien
or otherwise, if they thought it worthwhile. This free flow of ideas,
unimpeded by preconceptions and national barriers, made the ancient
World in some ways far more international in its cultural outlook and
social behaviour than our present-day society.

Trade and commerce dominated India’s relations with the countries
to the West of her, and cultural intercourse remained a subordinate
Partner throughout the long period of contact. Ideas inevitably moved
with goods, soldiers, and travellers; but few journeys were undertaken
Just to seek knowledge and learning. In marked contrast, Indian contacts
with the countries on her north, east, and southeast were mainly cultural,
With trade playing a significant but secondary role. Commerce may have
initiated contact but it was soon outpaced by culture. Again, the marks
of Indian culture in these areas are far more clearly seen, and more

299

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

readily conceded, than those in the West. It has, therefore, often been
said that India’s finest contributions to human civilization lie in Central
Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Whatever the sum total of Indian
influences on Western civilization, there is no doubt that ancient India
was the radiating centre of a civilization which left a deep mark on the
greater part of Asia.

Buddhism was the principal vehicle of Indian ideas and culture in
Asia and is still the religion of millions of Asians. In many countries
it became the national religion; in others it produced great intellectual
stimulation, controversy, and, eventually, rejuvenation. It brought the
uniquely rich and creative cultures of India, Indochina, Indonesia, China,
and Japan into contact with each other and, over a period of more than
a thousand years, gave rise to a great spiritual and cultural community
throughout Asia.

‘The most remarkable feature of the Buddhist missionary activity,
however, was that it was never fanatical, bigoted, or obtrusive, and
Buddhist missionaries never served the interests of a militant political
power. In the true spirit of its faith, Buddhism prevailed peacefully
through force of conviction. Like Hinduism, it did not lay claim to
exclusiveness and remained exceptionally tolerant of other beliefs. Its
intrinsic quality of being able to accommodate alien doctrines and adopt
local cultural traditions, without surrendering its fundamental concepts,
was principally responsible for its remarkable success in distant lands of
divergent cultures. Buddhism acted as a catalyst in different societies,
helping them to bring out their dormant strengths and to release their
creative energies. Its capacity to absorb, to impart, and to fertilize remains
unmatched in the history of cultural expansion.

Mucu or THE history of the ancient states of Central Asia has been
reconstructed from Chinese sources, which naturally deal with the lite
and events of these neighbouring states from the Chinese viewpoint ”
as an adjunct to Chinese history. But the Chinese accounts are valuable
in providing corrective or corroborative evidence to Buddhist narrative’:
Without archaeological work, however, the reconstruction of Buddhist
Central Asia would have remained less comprehensible and reliable.
It was only after the northern boundary of Afghanistan had bee?

300

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

demarcated and an agreement signed between Britain and Russia in
1887 that Central Asia was visited by European soldiers, adventurers,
and civil and military officials. In the beginning there were only stray
archaeological finds but they drew the attention of a wide circle of
scholars. In 1890 two Turks found a birch bark manuscript in the vicinity
of Qum-Tura, which they sold to a British army officer, Colonel Bower,
at Kucha. The text is commonly known as the Bower Manuscript and is
a Sanskrit treatise on medicine belonging to the fourth century. A few
years later, in 1893, a French traveller, M. Dutreuil de Rhins, acquired
two birch bark manuscripts in the vicinity of Khotan. Expert examination
found they contained a Buddhist text in an Indian language and script
of the second century—a new version of the Dhammapada in Prakrit
written in Kharoshthi script. These discoveries kindled a widespread
interest in the area. In 1898 a Russian archaeological mission led by
Klements visited the northern parts of eastern Turkistan. This had
been inspired by the remarkable finds of the Russian Consul-General,
Petrovsky, at Kashgar, but not much further archaeological exploration
of the region was undertaken. In 1896 Hedin’s march through the
areas of sand-buried ruins in the desert northeast of Khotan, although
not producing any historical evidence, succeeded in demonstrating the
accessibility and suitability of these sites for excavation. Soon, urged by
the recommendations of Hoernle, the Indian government deputed Aurel
Stein, a trained archaeologist, to carry out exploration in the region of
Khotan in 1900-1901. Encouraged by the remarkable results of his first
expedition Stein then explored regions beyond Khotan in the southern
Part of eastern Turkistan up to the borders of China. On his third
expedition, he covered a wider area including Khotan, Niya, Loulan,
Tun-huang, Borkul, Guchen, and Jimasa Kucha.’

His greatest discoveries were made in 1907, when he found more than
twenty thousand manuscripts and 554 separate paintings. The collection
included five hundred complete Buddhist canonical works and three
thousand works in Sanskrit or Brahmi. He filled twenty-four heavy
cases with manuscripts and five with paintings, embroideries, and other
"mains of Buddhist art. Amongst his many fascinating discoveries was
that of the “Old Wall.” The Great Wall of China in its present form is
of Ming date and was designed to protect China from Mongol attack;

301

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

but Stein found an extension of the original wall nearly two hundred
miles east of the Jade Gate where the silk road passes through the
frontier rampart. The wall, traced for one hundred miles, was first built
for protection against the ancient Huns in the second century B.c, by
the Han rulers.

Meanwhile, other European scholars also carried out explorations
in this region. Three German expeditions were conducted between
1902-1903 and 1913-1914 under the direction of Albert Grunwedel and
Albert Von Lecogq. These archaeologists worked mostly in the northern
part of eastern Turkistan. A French scholar of Chinese, Paul Pelliot, led
an expedition in 1906 which worked for two years, mainly at Tunhuang,
studying manuscript collections and the remains of art in the caves of
the Thousand Buddhas. In fact, Stein had bought a large collection of
manuscripts for a small sum of money in 1907 from a discharged soldier,
Wang Yuan-Lu, who had discovered the hidden library in the cave in
1900. A year later Pelliot made a similar but smaller find, although his
knowledge of Chinese enabled him to be more discriminating than Stein.
The Chinese understandably regard Stein and Pelliot as robbers because
they acted in accordance with the nineteenth-century European attitude
of the right to carry off “finds” made in non-European lands. Despite this,
there was enough of the collection left behind that in 1910 the Chinese
government was able to bring to Peking some ten thousand manuscripts.
Many fell into private hands and a year later the Japanese managed to
smuggle out six hundred manuscripts.? Most of the treasures are now
housed in various countries—Britain, China, Japan, India, Russia, and
Germany. During the last war, however, a large number of those kept
in Berlin were destroyed. :

‘This remarkable burst of archaeological work done during the a
seventeen years of this century has not been followed up for politica
and financial reasons. There remains a good deal more to be done am
signs have appeared in recent years suggesting a renewal of interest in the
exploration of this area, especially by Soviet and Chinese archacolog! È
In 1946-1947 the Russian Tolstov mission systematically explored K
enormous castle at Toprak-Kala in Chorasmia and later published c
valuable findings.

The limited work which has been done clearly reveals that the

302

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

ancient civilizations of the Central Asian states were of a somewhat
cosmopolitan character, in which Indian, Chinese, Persian, and
Hellenistic influences intermingled with local heritages. Although
Zoroastrianism, Manichaeanism, and Nestorian Christianity were
prevalent amongst some of the people, Buddhism was most popular,
and Central Asian cultural life was dominated for about a thousand years
by Indian religion, literature, arts, and sciences. The different religious
groups lived in harmony. For instance, at a ruined city called Turfan
(Idiqut-i-Shanri, Chotsche) the remains of Manichaean, Nestorian,
and Buddhist art and architecture are so closely associated that one must
conclude that full religious tolerance prevailed there. However, evidence
has also been found of a massacre of Buddhists by the Chinese about
the ninth century. Von Lecoq discovered a chamber packed with the
skeletons of monks still wearing fragments of their robes and bearing
marks of ruthless slaughter.

By far the largest part of the vast material discovered is of Buddhist
origin, although other documents, including many Manichaean
books have also been found. Numerous Sanskrit writings have been
found dealing with religious or semi-religious subjects—as medicine,
astronomy, and grammar were then considered to be. Documents from as
early as the second century have been discovered, some of them in Prakrit
Written in the Kharoshthi script of Asoka’s time. Some were written on
wood, some on birch bark or palm leaf, and others on leather. During
the first three centuries the Kharoshthi script was in use from Khotan
to Kroraina in the Lobnor region. Kharoshthi documents, numbering
into hundreds, have been found, mainly on the sites at Niya, Endere,
and Kroraina. In the fourth century in Khotan, Kucha, and Karashahr,
Kharoshthi was replaced by a form of Brahmi adopted from the script of
fourth-century Gupta India. The Chinese records date from even earlier
Periods; some are written on bamboo, others on silk, and other later ones
on paper. Recent excavations in Chinese Turkistan have brought to light
a large number of flourishing cities with rich sanctuaries. Recently, Soviet
Scholars discovered Sanskrit birch bark dating back to the sixth century
a castle called Zangtepe in Uzbekistan. These are in the Central Asian
b E script, and have thrown additional light on the cultural contact

en India and Central Asia.

303

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The religious structures excavated in Central Asia comprise stupas
caves, and viharas. The architecture appears to owe almost nothing i.
China but to include Indian and Persian features. Whilst numerous
representations of Hindu deities have been found, Hinduism does not
seem to have existed, except in Afghanistan. Buddhist missionaries
transmitted to Central Asia not only religion, art, and literature but also
scientific knowledge, as is evidenced by the discovery of the Sanskrit
medical texts. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Indian ideas in other
branches of science, such as mathematics and astronomy, may also have
reached Central Asia and beyond.

AFGHANISTAN, ESPECIALLY ITS northern regions around Balkh called
Tokharestan, was the crossroads of Central Asia. It was here that
the nomadic peoples first learned the ways of settled life, and thus
Tokharestan played the significant role of a cultural intermediary.’ Of
all the neighbouring cultures, it was with India that this region was most
closely connected. In fact, there is some sense in the suggestion that the
territory between the Indus and the Oxus Rivers was a domain of Indian
culture during the ancient period. Until the rise of Islam, Afghanistan
was Hindu-Buddhist. The Parthians called the province corresponding
to modern Kandahar and Sistan “White India,” because Indian culture
prevailed there. The Sassanians of the third century regarded even
Bactriana, or the region of Balkh, as virtually an Indian country and
the Oxus as a river of the Buddhists and the Brahmans. The ancient
Greek writers coupled Bactriana with India and stated that thousands
of Brahmans and Buddhist monks resided there.

Buddhism was the predominant religion in the various states of
Tokharestan from the second century B.C. to the beginning of the
eighth century. Hsiian-tsang (Yuan-chuang)* (602-664), who visite
the region on his way to India, testifies that Balkh was a great centre 2
original Buddhist studies, and gives a vivid description of the Buddhist
establishments there, Except for Hsiian-tsang’s account, there is 7°
systematic account of Buddhism in the early period in Tokharestan p7
adjoining territories. From his record it appears that Buddhism was m° :
prosperous in the cities, and that there were Buddhist monasten® s
every state. According to a legend recounted by Hsüan-tsang, the first

304

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

lay disciples of the Buddha, Trapusa and Bhallika, laid the foundations
of Buddhism in that country. Regardless of the authenticity of this
evidence, there is no doubt that Buddhism was carried to Balkh during
the period of Asoka’s reign. Later, the Yueh-chih, who conquered the
area, adopted Buddhism. The Kushans, who ruled over Tokharestan,
became great patrons of Buddhism, and Tokharestan became a thriving
centre for Buddhist studies. It produced famous scholars, such as
Ghasaka, who played an important part in the compilation of the Vidhasa,
a monumental Buddhist commentary, at the Buddhist Council held in
Kashmir under the patronage of Kaniska. It was from Tokharestan that
the Chinese ambassador Tsing Kiang received Buddhist texts as presents
to take back to the Chinese court in 2 B.c., thus beginning the inflow of
Buddhist culture to China. Later, Buddhist monks went to China from
Tokharestan to preach their faith and culture.

Archaeological data pertaining to the Buddhist period of Tokharestan
are only gradually coming to light. Various sites have been noted,
and some excavations have been carried out by French scholars in
Afghanistan, and, since the war, by Russian archaeologists on their
side of the Soviet-Afghan border. But much more needs to be done.
However, the explorations that have been carried out have led to the
discovery of very important finds. Situated about one hundred and fifty
miles northwest of Kabul, at the intersection of two major routes—one
leading from China to Persia across the Pamirs, and the other from
north Bactria to the Indus Valley—and commanding a major pass,
Bamiyan (Fanyen-na) was the first important way-station on the route
from the Kabul region to Balkh (Balhika or Fo-ho). It was a major seat
of Buddhist culture, as is revealed by the ruins of a very large monastery
which provided travellers with necessary facilities. It continued to be a
flourishing centre of Indian culture, attracting pilgrims and monks, until
the eighth century. A number of grottos in the hills around Bamiyan were
converted into Buddhist temples, and colossal figures of the Buddha were
carved on hillsides. Writing at the end of the seventeenth century, Abul
Fazl estimated the number of these caves to be about twelve thousand.

ome of the caves housed monks, others enshrined the images of the
Buddha and Bodhisattvas. Manuscripts of Buddhist texts in Indian
Scripts found at the site testify further to the Buddhist past of the region.

305

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

These remains reveal clearly that Buddhist art in Balkh, at least on the

south side of the Oxus, was flourishing. Beyond Bamiyan on the ancient
site of Balkh, ruins of stupas and other antiquities have been excavated,
As late as the time of Hstian-tsang the Buddhist monasteries of Balkh
were thriving. However, the city suffered much from foreign invasions,
and was destroyed by the Arabs towards the end of the seventh century,
soon after the departure of Hstian-tsang.

Greek culture had been superimposed on the Persian cultural
background of this region, until the penetration of Buddhism about the
first century. Although the country came under the rule of a number
of different peoples—the Greeks, the Sakas, the Yueh-chih, and the
Huns—it remained Buddhist until the end of the seventh century, when
the Muslim conquerors destroyed the great monastery, converted the
chief priests to Islam, and took them to the court of the Caliph. On the
authority of Al Biruni, these priests—Barmaks—inaugurated the study
of Indian astronomy and mathematics at Baghdad.

Elsewhere in Tokharestan, where foreign invasions were not as
destructive, remains of Buddhist art have even been discovered above
ground. For example, in Haibak, which is situated on the Khula
River, a stupa of the type of the Kailasa temple of Ellora was found. A
group of interesting ruins have also been discovered at Kundus and its
neighbourhood. These include remains of Graeco-Buddhist art, and
other evidence which reveals direct Indian influence from the fourth to
the fifth centuries. At Termez, which suffered considerably at the hands
of invaders, such as the Arabs and Mongols, old coins including those of
Kaniska and Huviska, the majority of which belong to the Indo-Greek
period have been excavated, as well as remains of Graeco-Buddhist
art. Other ruins yielded the Kata-stupa which is of the type found in
Gandhara and statues of Bodhisattvas similar to those found in Kuch?
and Taxila. Recently, first in 1958 and later in 1963, Asokan inscriptions
have been found in the Vicinity of Kandahar. These inscriptions were
written in Aramaic and Greek for the benefit of the Iranian and Greek
subjects of the Maurya Emperor.

BUDDHISM SPREAD NOT only westward from Tokharestan to Par thia, Pv
eastward to China and northward to Sogdiana (or Sodgh), the ancien

306

7 Sac e

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

name of Samarkand. Sogdians were known to the ancient Greeks and
Iranians, and were in close contact with India, where they were known
as Sulika, a name derived from the Iranian Sughdik (or Suwdik). The
people and their language have long since disappeared, but remnants
of the language have been discovered in a few Sogdian translations of
Buddhist texts excavated from parts of eastern Turkistan. Sogdians were
well-known traders and visited various regions of Central Asia from
Samarkand to the Great Wall, carrying with them Buddhist theory.
The Sogdian monks’ Chinese name was prefixed by Kang, derived from
Kang-kiu, the ancient name for Sogdiana in Chinese. A prominent
Sogdian monk, Seng-hui, introduced Buddhism to southern China via
India and Tonkin in the third century, and founded a Buddhist school
and a monastery at Nanking.

The eastward march of Buddhism into Chinese Turkistan is a story
not only of rare courage and conviction but also of enormous significance
in world history, for it provided the first major bridge between the
two great civilizations of India and China. Some idea of the success of
Buddhist missionary activity in this area can be gauged by the fact that
the civilization of Chinese or eastern Turkistan was so close to that of
India and Iran about the tenth century that Sir Aurel Stein referred to
it by the ancient Greek name “Ser-India.”

Lying beyond Tibet hundreds of torturous miles away from India,
and bounded on the south by the wild and untrodden Kun-iun mountain
ranges, on the west by the Pamirs, on the north by the Tien-shan
mountains, and on the east by the treacherous Gobi Desert, Chinese
Turkistan is practically a vast wasteland of gravel and shifting dunes.
Political and cultural activities, therefore, were confined to towns which
Were situated in most cases along the northern and southern edges of
the Tarim Basin, where the rivers and streams in the Tiien-shan and
Kun-lun ranges made irrigation possible and agriculture practicable.
These oasis cities were capitals of states of varying and fluctuating sizes,
4s well as important commercial centres on the silk road for more than
a thousand years. 4

Along the edge of T’ien-shan, in the northern part of Chinese
Turkistan, there were four important states culturally similar: the modern
Aksu, (Sanskrit, Bharuka); modern Kucha (Sanskrit, Kuchi); modern

307

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

These remains reveal clearly that Buddhist art in Balkh, at least on the

south side of the Oxus, was flourishing. Beyond Bamiyan on the ancient

site of Balkh, ruins of stupas and other antiquities have been excavated,
As late as the time of Hstian-tsang the Buddhist monasteries of Balkh
were thriving. However, the city suffered much from foreign invasions,
and was destroyed by the Arabs towards the end of the seventh century,
soon after the departure of Hstian-tsang.

Greek culture had been superimposed on the Persian cultural
background of this region, until the penetration of Buddhism about the
first century. Although the country came under the rule of a number
of different peoples—the Greeks, the Sakas, the Yueh-chih, and the
Huns—it remained Buddhist until the end of the seventh century, when
the Muslim conquerors destroyed the great monastery, converted the
chief priests to Islam, and took them to the court of the Caliph. On the
authority of Al Biruni, these priest:—Barmaks—inaugurated the study
of Indian astronomy and mathematics at Baghdad.

Elsewhere in Tokharestan, where foreign invasions were not as
destructive, remains of Buddhist art have even been discovered above
ground. For example, in Haibak, which is situated on the Khula
River, a stupa of the type of the Kailasa temple of Ellora was found. A
group of interesting ruins have also been discovered at Kundus and its
neighbourhood. These include remains of Graeco-Buddhist art, and
other evidence which reveals direct Indian influence from the fourth to
the fifth centuries. At Termez, which suffered considerably at the hands
of invaders, such as the Arabs and Mongols, old coins including those of
Kaniska and Huviska, the majority of which belong to the Indo-Greek
period have been excavated, as well as remains of Graeco-Buddhist
art. Other ruins yielded the Kata-stupa which is of the type found in
Gandhara and statues of Bodhisattvas similar to those found in Kucha
and Taxila. Recently, first in 1958 and later in 1963, Asokan inscriptions
have been found in the vicinity of Kandahar. These inscriptions ee
written in Aramaic and Greek for the benefit of the Iranian and Greek
subjects of the Maurya Emperor.

BUDDHISM SPREAD NOT only westward from Tokharestan to Parthia, PU
eastward to China and northward to Sogdiana (or Sodgh), the ancien

306

pis

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

name of Samarkand. Sogdians were known to the ancient Greeks and
Iranians, and were in close contact with India, where they were known
as Sulika, a name derived from the Iranian Sughdik (or Suwdik). The
people and their language have long since disappeared, but remnants
of the language have been discovered in a few Sogdian translations of
Buddhist texts excavated from parts of eastern Turkistan. Sogdians were
well-known traders and visited various regions of Central Asia from
Samarkand to the Great Wall, carrying with them Buddhist theory.
The Sogdian monks’ Chinese name was prefixed by Kang, derived from
Kang-kiu, the ancient name for Sogdiana in Chinese. A prominent
Sogdian monk, Seng-hui, introduced Buddhism to southern China via
India and Tonkin in the third century, and founded a Buddhist school
and a monastery at Nanking.

The eastward march of Buddhism into Chinese Turkistan is a story
not only of rare courage and conviction but also of enormous significance
in world history, for it provided the first major bridge between the
two great civilizations of India and China. Some idea of the success of
Buddhist missionary activity in this area can be gauged by the fact that
the civilization of Chinese or eastern Turkistan was so close to that of
India and Iran about the tenth century that Sir Aurel Stein referred to
it by the ancient Greek name “Ser-India.”

Lying beyond Tibet hundreds of torturous miles away from India,
and bounded on the south by the wild and untrodden Kun-iun mountain
ranges, on the west by the Pamirs, on the north by the T’ien-shan
mountains, and on ie east by the treacherous Gobi Desert, Chinese
Turkistan is practically a vast wasteland of gravel and shifting dunes.
Political and cultural activities, therefore, were confined to towns which
Were situated in most cases along the northern and southern edges of
the Tarim Basin, where the rivers and streams in the Tien-shan and
Kun-lun ranges made irrigation possible and agriculture practicable.

ese oasis cities were capitals of states of varying and fluctuating sizes,
4s Well as important commercial centres on the silk road for more than
a thousand years.

Along the edge of T’ien-shan, in the northern part of Chinese
Turkistan, there were four important states culturally similar: the modern
Aksu, (Sanskrit, Bharuka); modern Kucha (Sanskrit, Kuchi); modern

307

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Karashahr (Sanskrit, Agnidesa; Chinese, Yenki); and modern Turfan
(Chinese, Kao Chang, Chotsche). Of the southern states along the foot
of the Kun-lun Range the most important, from the viewpoint of cultural
influences, were Kashgar (Sanskrit, Sailadesa) ; Yarkand (Sanskrit,
Chokkuka); and Khotan (Sanskrit, Kustana; Chinese, Yutien), The two
Pamir states, Kie-Pan-to (Sarikol) and Wu-Sha (Yangi-Hissar), in the
east of Shughnan are included in the Kashgar group. At the eastern
extremity of these routes, the famous city of Tun-huang was located.

‘The chief sources of information about this region are the Chinese
and Tibetan annals, the narratives of Chinese pilgrims, and modern
archaeological excavations undertaken by Aurel Stein, Albert Grunwedel,
Paul Pelliot, and others mainly between 1900 and 1914, and by Soviet
and Chinese archaeologists recently. The authenticity of the traditional
accounts, preserved in the Chinese and Tibetan literatures, as well as in
Buddhist texts, may be open to further verification. However, there is
reliable archaeological evidence to suggest that there were small Indian
settlements in existence in the southern part of this region before the
Christian era, and that the wandering peoples of Central Asia, such
as the Sakas and the Kushans, together with Indian merchants, were
amongst the first to carry Indian culture and Buddhism to eastern
Turkistan. An Indian dialect similar to that of northwestern India
was the official language in some of these states. It is not unlikely that
in certain areas Indians had settled in large numbers and set up their
own principalities. These kingdoms of Central Asia were centres of
extraordinary religious, literary, and artistic activity. Indian settlements
were periodically reinforced by people from India, and many of these
people would themselves set out on missions, for example, to China
Many of these Indians were from South India. From recent excavations
at Toprak-Kala, Tolstov has suggested that the kings of this regi”
employed Dravidian Indians as palace guards.’ In the southern kingdoms
of Kashgar, Yarkand, and Khotan, there was a strong Indian element"
the population, and Khotan appears to have been the most important
Indianized kingdom in Central Asia.

At the junction of one route running southeast to Khotan and another
northeast to the Kucha region, Kashgar, from ancient times, play?
a significant role in the transmission of culture to the northern *”

308

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

southern states of the Tarim Basin. In Kashgar a script of Indian origin
based on Brahmi, was current, and possibly the language was a dialect
of eastern Iran. Fa-hsien, who visited Kashgar during his Indian journey
at the end of the fourth century, found Buddhism prospering there with
more than two thousand monks and their disciples, all followers of the
Theravada school. Two centuries later, Hsiian-tsang found that the
people were sincere Buddhists. There were hundreds of monasteries, and
Sanskrit was seriously cultivated. It was common for Indian scholars to
visit Kashgar; the Buddhist teacher, Kumarajiva, stayed there for about
ayear on his return journey from Kashmir. Numerous relics of Buddhist
stupas have been found in this locality.

The adjoining area of Khotan was also a flourishing centre of
Buddhism. There is more information about Khotan revealed in Chinese,
Tibetan, and archaeological sources, than there is about Kashgar.° A
Buddhist legend describes the conversion of Khotan as early as the
time of the Buddha. Another legend refers to the political supremacy of
Kunala, Asoka’s son, in Khotan. Also, according to ancient Khotanese
traditions, a son of Asoka named Kustana founded the kingdom about
240 B.c., 234 years after the Nirvana, and it was Vijayasambhava,
the grandson of Kustana, who introduced Buddhism into Khotan.
A Buddhist scholar named Arya Vairocana, who was regarded as an
incarnation of the Maitraya Buddha, and who had miraculously brought
Buddhist relics from Kashmir, is said to have come from India and
become the King’s preceptor. The tradition further claims the rule of
an Indian dynasty in Khotan for fifty-six generations—all the kings’
names of this line begin with Vijaya—during which period Buddhism
temained the dominant religion of the state. According to the Tibetan
annals, the first monastery, which Chinese records describe as “the stupa
of up-turned bowl,” was built about 211 8.c. A Chinese scholar-monk,
Song-yun, mentions a monastery called Tsan-mo which is known as
Tsarma in Tibetan sources. The Chinese annals more or less confirm
Tibetan accounts of ancient Khotan, which are substantially reinforced
by the archaeological finds of Aurel Stein, who identified the old site of
Tsarrna with Chalma-kazan in the vicinity of Yotkan. The remarkable
Sculptures and paintings which the ancient shrines and dwelling places
have yielded, despite centuries of burial beneath the dunes indicate that

309

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the painters of Central Asian regions followed Indian models during the
seventh and eighth centuries.

When Buddhism first began to expand into Central Asia a synthesis
between the Indian and Graeco-Roman art forms was taking place in
Gandhara (northwestern India). The emergent form utilized Greek
architectural motifs, such as the Corinthian pillar, and Greek drapery,
but also contained characteristics of Indian art, which was flourishing in
the interior of the country. The life of the Buddha and stories from his
former incarnations were generally portrayed and for the first time the
image of the Buddha was carved on the model of Apollo. This gave rise to
the whole iconography of later Buddhism, which has inspired the art of
various countries, and has become an integral part of Buddhist worship.
Until then neither the Buddha nor the Boddhisattvas were represented
in pictorial form. In contrast, the worship of “images,” a pan-Hellenic
phenomenon, was very popular throughout the Hellenistic civilization.

Later, as art developed in India, some of its influences, particularly
Gupta art, were passed on to Central Asia through the routes travelled
by monks and merchants. Figures became slenderer, poses more graceful,
draperies more transparent. Buddha images were portrayed cooling their

feet on the beautiful lotus, an Indian symbol of purity. The art of Ajanta
appears to have been reborn in Central Asia. In fact, these paintings from
Central Asia have helped to bridge a gap between Ajanta and Akbar in
the story of Indian painting.

Central Asian art bore Persian, Chinese, Graeco-Buddhist, and Indian
influences. The Khotanese were very fond of music and drama, and this
fondness found an expression in the annual procession of images called
Buddha Yatra, like the Indian Ratha Yatra. Close Indian contact is also
indicated by a find of coins, a Kharoshthi inscription, and a text of the
Dhammapada near Khotan. The Sino-Kharoshthi coins are the most
important of these finds and were probably issued after 74 when Khotan
had passed under effective Chinese suzerainty.

Numerous fresco or distemper paintings on wood and plaster have
been found at Dandan-Uiliq, the Chinese garrison headquarters which

was deserted soon after 791. A number of old Buddhist sites excavated
in the desert of Dandan-Uiliq have yielded many stucco images on
relics, manuscripts and records in Brahmi as well as in Chinese script-

310

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

Khotan’s famous monastery, Gomati Vihara, was widely known as a seat
of learning from very early times and attracted scholars from India and
China. In 259 a well-known Chinese monk Chu She-ling, who compiled
one of the first catalogues of Buddhist texts in Chinese, came to Khotan
to study Buddhism, taking back with him ninety bundles of original
Buddhist texts. In Central Asia numerous Sanskrit texts have been found
that are not extant in India, amongst them the Udanavarga.

Buddhism flourished in Khotan until about the eighth century and
at its peak boasted nearly four thousand monasteries. According to Fa-
hsien, Mahayana Buddhism was the more prevalent type and its priests
numbered in the thousands. He mentions a monastery which took eighty
years to build and was two hundred and fifty feet tall, overlaid with gold
and silver carvings.

At the height of her power, the kingdom of Khotan extended from
Chokkuka (Yarkand, Sokiu) in the west to Niya (Ni-jang) in the east.
Khotan became the centre for the dissemination of Buddhism to other
states, such as Niya, Calmadana (Cherchen), Kroraina (Loulan), and
even China. It was from Khotan that Buddhism travelled to China
reaching Korea and Japan by the sixth century. The Chinese, during
the later Han and Tang periods, maintained effective control over the
kingdom of Khotan. This fact is recorded in the Chinese annals and
illustrated by finds of Chinese documents on wood or paper, Chinese
coins, and other articles. Whilst China maintained political supremacy
over Khotan and exercised an influence on Khotanese culture in the
realms of art and religion, it borrowed a good deal more than it gave. A
Khotanese embassy was sent to China for the first time during the reign
of Emperor Wu (140-87 s.c.). Chinese ascendancy in Khotan ended
about 791 and contact between the two became infrequent. It is possible
that historians may well have overestimated Khotan’s importance in this
Process of cultural diffusion simply because the materials available on the
subject are plentiful in comparison with other principalities.

East of Khotan was Niya, also an important centre of Buddhism. The
discovery of some seals and effigies of Kubera and Trimukha at Niya, and
the painted Ganesha at Endere, suggest some Hindu influence. But the
discovery of the remains of Buddhist stupas, viharas, and texts written in
Sanskrit and Prakrit indicate that Buddhism was the predominant religion

311

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in all these localities. A variety of other documents written in Indian
languages and scripts on leather, paper, silk, and wooden tablets have

also
been found. East of Niya is the modern site called Endere, the

ancie
Tu-ho-lo, which has also yielded Kharoshthi tablets and mae A
of the type found in Niya, as well as the ruins of a Buddhist stupa,

Archaeological work has revealed a chain of sites in the east and
northeast which also testify to the preponderance of the Buddhist
culture in this region for several centuries. In the Chinese records of
the Han period, this country is referred to as Shan-Shan, the new name
for Loulan which in turn was the Chinese transcription of the original
Kroraina (or Krorayma) found in the Kharoshthi documents. Evidence
indicates that Kroraina was a thriving centre of Buddhism and Indian
culture; according to Fa-hsien there were four thousand monks there.
The Kharoshthi documents excavated from the various sites of Kroraina
are written in Prakrit and contain names of Indian origin: for example,
Caraka, Kumudvati, Vasudeva, and Budhamitra.

The story of Buddhist expansion along the northern route is somewhat
the same. Kucha was the most powerful state in this region and played a
predominant role in the spread of Buddhism to other northern states and
to China. The exact date of the arrival of Buddhism in China is unknown,
although it was probably in the first century. The Chinese annals of
the third century state that there were nearly one thousand stupas and
temples in Kucha. Buddhist monks from Kucha went to China and took
an active part in translating Buddhist texts into Chinese. Po-yen, who
was probably a member of the Kuchean royal family, became a Buddhist
monk, and rendered six Buddhist texts into Chinese. Buddhist activity
reached a peak during the fourth century with Kucha an almost entirely
Buddhist city. Kumarajiva, the Buddhist monk-scholar who introduced
Mahayana Buddhism to the states of the Tarim Basin and also to Chin’
was born in Kucha of an Indian father, who was the Rajaguru of the state,
and of a Kuchean princess. Kumarajiva was taken to China as a pr isonet
when Kucha was destroyed by a Chinese expeditionary force in 382. He
lived there until his death in 413 and his work gave rise to an exception y
brilliant and productive phase in the history of Chinese Buddhist

Archaeological finds show that Buddhism was a flourishing © eligion

in the north until about the eighth century. In the early period, Buddhist

312

ae

7 Sa

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

culture in Turfan drew upon the Buddhist church in Kucha and
Karashahr but after about the fifth century it increasingly assimilated
Chinese influences. Buddhism continued, however, as the religion of the
people for many centuries. Hsiian-tsang, who received a warm reception
in Turfan and was given generous help so that he might continue his
pilgrimage to India, speaks of the prosperous condition of Buddhism
there. His account is supported by Chinese inscriptions which contain
many references to the influences of Buddhism on the life and culture
of the inhabitants.

In 507, Kiu, a Chinese dynasty, was established in Turfan, and more
than a century later, in 640, it was brought under the direct control of
China. At about this time the conflict for power with the Uigur Turks,
one of the Hun tribes, began. During the sixth century a Turkish
kingdom stretched from the Altai Mountains eastward to the Pacific
Ocean and westward to the Black Sea. In the seventh century, Balkh,
Bamiyan, the Hindu Kush, Badakshan, and Belehan were under Turkish
control. But soon central authority began to weaken, the conflict with
the rising power of the Arabs began, and the Turkish Empire split
into two parts. The western part gradually became Islamic between the
eighth and tenth centuries, and the eastern part was consolidated under
the Uigur Turks. The Uigur Empire was the most important power in
Central Asia between 755 and $40. After a prolonged war amongst the
Tibetans, the Chinese, and the Uigurs, the latter triumphed and set up
their rule in Turfan in 870 with Qarakhodjo as their capital. Uigur rule
lasted in Turfan until the eleventh century, and during this period the
region played a significant role in the history of Central Asia.

The ascendancy of the Uigurs, who were enthusiastic Buddhists, acted
as a new impetus for the further advance of Buddhism. The Turks had
embraced Buddhism quite early in Tokharestan and it had a powerful
influence over their lives until their conversion to Islam. By the time
they appeared in Turfan they had already absorbed a good deal of
Buddhist culture, During their struggle against the Arabs, they built a
huge Buddhist monastery near the Sogdh River. The name of the City,
Bokhara, is derived from the Turkish and Mongol word bukbar for vihara.
Itis said that a Chinese princess, who was given in marriage to a Turkish
ruler, brought with her an icon of the Buddha. A vihara was built for the

313

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

image and the town of Bokhara later developed around this monastery
Most of the Buddhist sites in the region of Turfan belong to the ia
period, and include cave temples with frescos representing Buddhas or
Bodhisattvas, and numerous other Buddhist shrines. Buddhist texts in
Tokharian are found together with Uigur translations,

Buddhism did not retain its original Indian character in Central Asia.
During the course of its migration from India to Tokharestan, Khotan,
and Turfan, Buddhism inevitably absorbed local characteristics. In the
western part of Central Asia around Kashgar and in the northern part
stretching eastward beyond Kucha, Theravada Buddhism was prevalent
but at places along the southern route, especially in Khotan and in the
northeastern part around Turfan, Mahayana Buddhism was practiced.

Despite the enormous pressure of Islam in the eighth century,
Buddhism held on until the eleventh century in the lines of oases lying
north and south of the desert. Islamic attacks must have caused extensive
destruction of religious art and sacred manuscripts since these Buddhist
monasteries and sanctuaries were deserted in the eleventh century;
whatever escaped the iconoclastic zeal of the Muslim conquerors has
been well preserved in the dry climate of the region for the past nine
hundred years.

India’s immediate neighbours, Nepal and Tibet, owe much of their
cultural inheritance to contact with India. Modern Nepal, an expanded
version of the ancient country, is 525 miles long and about one hundred
miles wide, and lies between India and Tibet. Originally the word Nepal
implied the Valley, which, surrounded by the peaks of the Himalayas,
is about fifteen to twenty miles long and ten miles wide, with its three
capitals, Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhatgaon lying within a radius of seven
miles of one another, Contact between the two countries is so clos¢
and ancient that it is impossible to trace the origins of Nepalese culture
separately from Indian culture. It was in one of the republics of ancient
India, at Lumbini in the city of Kapilavastu, within the boundaries of
modern Nepal, that Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was bor
Consequently, Nepal holds a unique position in the Buddhist world,
even though today it is the only country professing to be a sovereign
Hindu state.

; T 3 ed
According to tradition, however, it was Asoka who introduc

314

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

Buddhism as an organized doctrine into Nepal. He visited Lumbini and
erected an inscribed pillar to commemorate the sacred birthplace of the
Buddha. This event is an important landmark in the history of Buddhism.
Itis said that Charumati, a daughter of Asoka, married a Nepalese prince
and built several stupas and monasteries, some of which have survived to
the present day. Later, the imperial Guptas imposed their sovereignty
on Nepal, and the reigning dynasties of Nepal and India began to
intermarry. Nepal has often changed her religion according to whichever
faith prevailed in the neighbouring parts of India—having embraced
Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Hinduism in their respective ages
of supremacy. The Rajputs and the Brahmans—and probably Buddhist
monks from Nalanda and elsewhere—escaped to Nepal when Islam
triumphed in India. In the eighteenth century Nepal was conquered by
the Gurkhas, who trace their descent from the Rajputs, and who in the
sixteenth century conquered the little state of Gurkha. Their language,
Khas, is a Rajasthani dialect of Sanskrit origin, and under their influence
Hinduism became the state religion of Nepal.

Nepal has never known religious conflicts and persecutions, and even
today Hinduism and Buddhism live together in complete harmony. In the
early centuries A.D. the disciplinary rules applicable to the monks of the
Mulasarvastivada school of Buddhism in Nepal were somewhat modified
to suit the rigid climatic conditions of that region. Nepal attained
prominence both as a political and religious state during the reign of
King Amsurvarman in the seventh century, who was as remarkable an
administrator as he was a conqueror. Although he was perhaps a Sivaite
Hindu, he contributed generously towards the growth of the Buddhist
faith and institutions.

Later, Buddhist monks escaping from the encroachments of Islam in
Bihar and Bengal took refuge in Nepal, carrying with them numerous
valuable manuscripts, some of which were later transmitted to Tibet
Where they are still preserved. Thus some of the many Buddhist works
which were lost in India are available in Chinese and Tibetan translations,
and it is in Nepal that the nine Sanskrit works forming the Nepalese
Buddhist canon are preserved. They are considered the original works
of the Sanskrit canon which became the official scriptures of Mahayana
Buddhism; the Prajnaparamita is amongst these nine. Nepal has been a

315

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

link between the regions lying on the two sides of the mid-Himalayan

ranges, and, until recently, the normal road of communication between

India and Tibet lay through Nepal via Kyirong,

With the decline of Buddhism in India, Nepalese Buddhism became
increasingly self-contained, gradually abandoning some of its original
features, such as monastic life and opposition to caste. Until recently
four main sects of Buddhist philosophy have been prominent in Nepal:
Svabhavika, which emphasizes that all things in the world have their
own ultimate characteristics; Aisvarika, which believes in a self-existent
god, who is perfect and infinite; Karmika, which believes in a conscious
moral effort through which the world-phenomenon is developed; and
Yatrika, which believes in the existence of conscious intellectual agency
and free will. These represent an almost complete fusion of the various
philosophical theories that emerged in India and Tibet under the stimulus
of either Hinduism or Buddhism.

‘The small valley of Nepal reputedly contains more than two thousand
temples. The most famous of these is the Temple of Pashupatinath. Most
of the stupas of Asoka have disappeared and those that have survived,
such as at Sanchi, Taxila, and Sarnath, have been so enlarged that the
Original structures are no longer clear. Only in Nepal have Mauryan
stupas retained their original shape. Hindu religious architecture in
Nepal is characterized by the stone temple with a massive tower above
a comparatively small shrine. Because of the Buddhist periods in her
history, Nepal has also developed temples of the pagoda type made of
wood with copper roofs. Nepalese sculpture and painting is in a style
derived from the Pala art of Bihar and Bengal. In the realm of art, Nepal
was, in fact, practically an exclusive province of Pala, India, between the
ninth and twelfth centuries. Tibet, whose art is close to that of Nepal
adopted the Pala tradition through Nepal and Kashmir. Many of the laws
of Nepal and its social organizations naturally reflect Hindu models, and
the Nepalese language is very close to Sanskrit. But the Hindu civilization
in Nepal has evolved a distinct character of its own, effected through @
blending of its own traditions with those of Tibet.

. ical

WHEREVER BuppHISM spreap it was able to ignite a new histor i
À 3 i ia whe
consciousness. This was the case in some measure even in India wh

316

Se

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

Indian recorded history began in inscriptions and other forms from the
time of Asoka. But it is in Tibet that the best example of this is seen.
The history of Tibet was first recorded in the seventh century during
the reign of Songtsan-Gampo, who first conceived the idea of reducing
spoken Tibetan to a system of alphabetic writing to facilitate the arrival
of Buddhism from India. However, Tibets great altitude, the deeply
religious character of its society, and its political organization have
isolated it from other lands. When the Tibetans, who are ethnologically
similar to the peoples of the Himalayan regions, settled in the area is not
known; from time immemorial they have lived in an isolation imposed
by the peculiarities of their environment. Except for Buddhism in
the seventh century, Tibet scarcely allowed any other foreign cultural
influence within her national frontiers. In fact, Tibet was the last country
to embrace Buddhism, which by the seventh century was thriving in
many other lands.

Traders, soldiers, and pilgrims had long been crossing her borders,
and cultural contacts between Tibet and the Buddhist world surrounding
her must have been established centuries before the actual arrival of
Buddhism. According to a Tibetan legend, in the fifth century some
Buddhist missionaries from India approached the Tibetan King Thotho-
ri with presents of Buddhist books, but none at the royal court could
make out what they meant, since an alphabetic script was then unknown
in Tibet.

Although Buddhism was finally welcomed and encouraged by the
powerful ruling Tibetan dynasty, it did not take root as easily as might
have been expected. Before it was accepted by the people, it encountered
prolonged opposition from the traditional ritualistic and sacrificial faith.
This faith endorsed a nature worship, and believed that human ills were
caused by the activities of evil spirits who were controlled by magic and
spells. Buddhism had to wage an incessant and arduous struggle for over
three centuries against these indigenous beliefs and old superstitions,
and adapt its own doctrines to placate them. Many setbacks occurred
Until the arrival of Atisa in the eleventh century, when Buddhism finally
became the national religion of Tibet.

Matrimonial alliances were instrumental in starting the growth of
Buddhism in Tibet. In the seventh century, Tibet had emerged as a strong

317

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

kingdom extending to the borders of India, Nepal, and China. In the
south, Nepal’s King was Amsuvarman; in the east, China was ruled by the
powerful Emperor Tang Tai-tsung. According to the Tibetan chronicles
the talented Tibetan King, Songtsan-Gampo (or Srong-btsan Bam-po}
married the daughter of Amsuvarman, Princess Bhrikuti, who was a
devout Buddhist and who brought an image of the Buddha to Tibet with
her. Songtsan, in deference to the new queen’s beliefs which he himself
already favoured, built a great temple known as Jokhang to house her
image of the Buddha. Songtsan’s power was so great that he compelled
the Emperor of China to give him Princess Wen Ch’eng in marriage. She
too was Buddhist and brought to Tibet the famous Buddha image now
enshrined in Jokhang. This statue originally came from Magadha in India,
It forms, together with two other statues preserved at the monastery of
Kum-bum and at Santal temple at Peking, one of a triad celebrated in
the Buddhist world. Whilst the arrival of these two queens did much to
help the king introduce Buddhism into Tibet, he had, in fact, already
selected a brilliant Tibetan in his court, Thonmi Sambhota, along with
sixteen others, to travel to the famous centres of learning in southern
India to study Indian writing, phonetics, and grammar.

Upon his return from several years of study in India, Thonmi Sambhota
not only composed eight independent treatises on Tibetan writing and
grammar, but also prepared the first Tibetan translations of Sanskrit texts
of Buddhism.’ Thus, he was both the pioneer of Buddhist learning in
Tibet and the father of Tibetan literature. A grammar and a new script
on the lines of the Khotanese alphabet, derived from Sanskrit prevalent
in the Gupta period, were evolved for the Tibetan language. $

Once the practice of visiting India had begun, many Tibetan studenti
went to India to study Buddhism, and Sanskrit texts began to pout neg
Tibet. Indian and Chinese scholars visited Tibet and helped in translation
and interpretation. It was during this period that the celebrate
sandalwood image of Avalokitesvara, the compassionate Buddha, now
worshipped in the palace of the Dalai Lama, was supposedly brought t
Tibet by Indian scholars.

Songtsan, a contemporary of Muhammad and Harsha, intr oduced ‘
number of social and cultural reforms, made Buddhism the state 1 ne
and actively encouraged the study of Buddhism during the thirty y“

318

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

of his reign. He promulgated laws to harmonize with the Ten Virtues
of Buddhism. He built the temples of Ramoche and Jokhang in Lhasa,
and laid the beginnings of the magnificent palace of the Dalai Lama,
the Potala, which exists to this day. He is regarded by the Tibetans as
a national hero and a spiritual guide. For his respect for learning, and
love of Tibet and its people, he is worshipped as one of the incarnations
of Avalokitesvara.®

By the middle of the eighth century, Tibet had become so powerful
under Trisong-Detsan that it was able to dictate terms to the kingdoms
of Central Asia, control the nomads in the Tarim Basin, and even defeat
Chinese armies and force the payment of tribute. Trisong-Detsan’s
victory over China is commemorated in a pillar inscription in front
of the Potala. He enthusiastically supported Buddhism, and invited
Santarakshita, a famous Indian scholar from Nalanda University, to Tibet
to preach Buddhism and initiate regular conversions. But Santarakshita
faced bitter opposition from the Bonists and his sermons elicited little
response. Storms and epidemics raging at the time provided “heaven-
sent” opportunities for the Bonists, who were supported by dissident
elements in the palace. These natural calamities were interpreted as the
wrath of the gods at the perverse teachings of Santarakshita and finally
the King was compelled to advise Santarakshita to retire to Nepal until
public passions had subsided. In the end, however, the King triumphed
over the Bonist rebellion. Santarakshita saw that in Tibet, immersed as
it was in primitive sorcery and love of ritual, only a man versed in the
esoteric practices and beliefs of Tantrism could command attention,
and on his advice in 747 the King invited the great Tantric teacher,
Padmasambhava (known in Tibet as Guru Rinpoche), to Tibet.

Born in Udayana, the border region between Kashmir and Afghanistan
famous for its sorcery and magic, Padmasambhava had studied at Nalanda
and was reputed to possess great supernatural powers. Before starting
for Tibet, Padmasambhava prepared himself thoroughly for his task.
He carefully studied the Bon doctrines and practices, and realized that
aly 4 person who could claim power over evil spirits and demonstrate
ie Supremacy could possibly succeed. He took Mahayana Buddhism

nged with Tantric ideas to Tibet and, by incorporating many gods as
‘ntric guardian deities, he laid the foundation of Tibetan Buddhism

319

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

or Lamaism. He replaced the Bon cult of animal worship with symbolic
worship and its practice of black magic with inner purification,

It is, however, not easy to ascertain the truth about Padmasambhava
because his life is so enshrouded in myth and legend. Nor is it easy

now
define the details of the primitive Lamaism he devised and taught. au
is evident that his teaching was Tantric and a magical type of Mahayana
Buddhism, to which he added a portion of the ritual and demonolatry of
Bon. The Tantric Buddhism of Padmasambhava has been subjected toa
good deal of criticism by some commentators, mainly because they have
misunderstood the nature of Tantrism and the large part which sex played
in it. The standards which these critics apply to Padmasambhava and
his doctrine are unenlightened. Tantrism, whether Hindu or Buddhist,
aims to interpret human nature pragmatically, and, unlike most faiths,
it preaches understanding and sublimation of the reproductive force in
direct opposition to the common but scientifically unsound teaching
concerning the forcible suppression of it. Science recognizes today what
Tantric thinkers accepted centuries ago, that “there is direct relationship
between the highest mental and psychic powers in mankind and the
secretions of the sex glands and, that physical youthfulness and efficiency
are dependent upon conservation of the reproductive essences. All
religions, likewise, even the most primitive, have recognized that there
is inseparableness between the sex-energy and spiritual growth.”

Having been engaged in an unending war against evil spirits and
demons, the Tibetans had acquired a tradition of discipline and
organization, which made it easy for Padmasambhava to develop
organized Buddhist life in Tibet. The first great monastery, in fact i
greatest ever built in Tibet, the Samye monastery, which today contan
many shrines and a large library of Sanskrit and Tibetan books, w2
built in 749 at Bsam-yas on the model of the Udayantapuri in Da
Santarakshita laid the foundation and was appointed its abbot.
held office for thirteen years until his death. He and Padmasambh :
collaborated in teaching the Tripitaka, the Tantric doctrines, and r
philosophical system of Yogacara. Having established Tibetan Buddhis 5
or Lamaism, Padmasambhava disappeared from Tibet. Howeveh 3
deep respect held for him even today indicates the impression he m
on his contemporaries.

ava

320

) "aa

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

An important feature of this period was the reorganization and
systematization of the translations of Santarakshita, and the preparation
of the first catalogue of all translated Buddhist works. Meanwhile,
Buddhist texts and scholars had also begun to arrive from China,
some of them opposed to Lamaism. To meet their challenge the King
invited Santarakshita’s able disciple and commentator, Kamalasila,
from Nalanda to deal with them. A debate was held between a Chinese
scholar, the Mahayanist Hwashang, and Kamalasila in the presence of
the King, and Kamalasila was the winner. The Chinese scholar, having
lost the argument, left the country, but feelings amongst his defeated
partisans were so embittered that the Indian scholar was murdered.
His body was embalmed and is still preserved in a monastery in the
north of Lhasa. Kamalasila was the author of Tarka, a work expounding
the various philosophic systems of India, and of many other treatises
which are still extant in the great Lamaist canon, Tan-gyur (or Tanjur).
Mahavyutpatti, the excellent Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary, also dates
from this period.

Buddhism made steady progress and was actively patronized by
Trisong-Detsan’s successors, especially by Rapachen (or Ralpachen)
(817-836). His reign is considered a glorious period of Tibetan
Buddhism, and it was under his patronage that the first history of Tibet
was written. He made his young son take monastic vows, gave various
Privileges and administrative authority to the priesthood, built libraries,
Monasteries, and temples, encouraged Buddhist painting and sculpture,
and even allowed his long locks of hair to be used as a mat by the Buddhist
abbots associated with him. In the first year of his reign, he convened a
Great Council of Indian and Tibetan scholars to discuss ways of spreading
Buddhism. It was a period of great literary activity in which numerous
Indian scholars, such as Jinamitra, Silendrabodhi, Surendrabodhi,
Prajnavarmam, Danasila, and Bodhimitra, co-operated with the Tibetan
scholars, Dpal-brt segs, Ye-ses-sde, Chos-kyirgyalmthsan, and others,
1 translating many Sanskrit works, which constitute more than half of
the two large Tibetan collections, Kanjur and Tanyur.

: Pethaps the very fact of Rapachen’s devotion to Buddhism and the
aed of Buddhist activity caused the opposition to react violently,
a palace revolution Rapachen was murdered by the supporters of

321

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

his elder brother Glandarma, who, upon accession, became a professed
enemy of Buddhism. A violent persecution followed. Buddhist images
were burned, monasteries closed, religious ceremonies banned, and
monks forced to return to the life of laymen under the penalty of exile,
By an interesting coincidence, Buddhism was also being persecuted in
China at this time. Such excesses created widespread resentment and
counteraction. Within three years of the beginning of King Glandarma's
reign, in 841, a monk quietly rode up and killed him with a well-aimed
arrow. Whilst Glandarma’s ruthless suppression of Buddhism brought
the end of early Lamaism, it marked a decisive period in the annals of
Tibetan politics, for it led to the decline and fall of monarchial rule in
Tibet. The banished priesthood returned to Tibet and became more
powerful than ever.

Buddhism finally became the national religion of Tibet by the
beginning of the eleventh century, and the flow of Buddhist monks
and scholars between India and Tibet gained new impetus. Once the
followers of Bon were fully reconciled, there developed a distinctive
Tibetan branch of Buddhism which produced many great spiritual
teachers, scholars, and preachers, well-versed in both Sanskrit and
Tibetan literature. To assist in the growth of Buddhism, Tibetan scholars
persuaded Atisa (980-1054 )—also known as Dipankara Srijnana—of
the Vikramasila monastery in Bihar, to come to Tibet in 1038. Atisa,
who was nearly sixty years old at that time, lived and preached in all parts
of the country for about fifteen years before he died in the Nyethang
monastery, where his Samadhi still stands. Atisa based his teachings °"
the Yogacara tradition, took a synthetic view of the tenets of Hinayan’
and Mahayana Buddhism, enforced celibacy of monks, and discourag® ;
magic practices. He was possibly the last great Indian scholar to a
spiritual impetus from India to Tibet, where he ranks next only t0 a
Buddha and Padmasambhava. A

Other Indian influences also found their way to Tibet. For igen
the Tibetan medical system owes its origin to the Ayurvedic sy Bey du
India. Tibetan Tantric forms are almost indistinguishable from oe
Tantras, and certain Tantric images like Halahal-avalokitesva™

: . < far ely
Nilkant-avalokitesvara are derivatives of Siva. Tibetan art is larg

322

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

a continuation of the Buddhist art of eastern India during the Pala
period. The representations of the Bodhisattvas, for example, are directly
reminiscent of the traditions of Pala art, and reached Tibet through the
Nepalese. Nepalese craftsmen were particularly accomplished and, even
as far as Peking, they were considered amongst the best in this field
until the collapse of Lamaism in China. Indian influence, possibly that
of Ajanta, is particularly well marked in a Tibetan painting representing
Avalokitesvara and Kitigarbha, now preserved in the Musée Guimet at
Paris. Tibetan art was very popular with the Emperors of China, so much
so that some of its religious features were adopted during the Ming and
Ching periods.

After the death of Atisa, Buddhist reform was somewhat interrupted
by prolonged political unrest in Tibet. Whilst reform suffered, Buddhism
itself gained fresh strength, because Buddhist monasteries provided
sanctuary to soldiers as well as to refugees. In 1206 Genghis Khan,
the grandfather of Kublai Khan, brought Tibet under Mongol control.
In the second half of the century, the Tibetan Lamas, despite intense
competition from their Christian rivals, succeeded in converting Emperor
Kublai Khan to Buddhism, giving Buddhism in Tibet unique prestige
and power. The most powerful of the Lamaist hierarchs was the Saskya
Grand Lama, and it was his representatives who succeeded in converting
the Great Khan. In return, the Lama of Saskya, with the assistance of a
staff of scholars, translated the Tibetan Buddhist canon into Mongolian,
and was recognized as head of the Lamaist Church and tributory ruler of
Tibet in 1270, This creation of a Lamaist Papacy by conferring “divine”
honours upon the acquisition of temporal power, was, however, not
analogous to Indian practice. Asoka himself never claimed any divine
honours other than what was implied in his cherished title, “Beloved of
the Gods.” Tibet remained under Saskya supremacy until the middle of
the fourteenth century when the power of the Saskya abbot was broken
by the Ming Emperor of China.

Meanwhile, Tibetan Buddhism had begun to split into various schools
ofthought. ‘The earlier heterogenous type of Buddhism came to be called
Monee or the Old Tantric or Translation School. Its followers

Pped Padmasambhava as their founder and guru, and believed

323

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in the fulfilment of both the divine and the demonical. Today they are
generally recognized by their red caps. The Kagyupa school was founded
by Marpa, who had studied with Atisa at Nalanda under the Indian
Tantrist, Naropa, and whose teachings have some affinities with the
Dhyana School of Buddhism. The Saskya School (Great Earth School,
so known because of the colour of the soil where its first monastery was
built in 1071 on the site of the present Saskya) was closely related to the
old Rninmapa School. It sought a synthesis between the old and the
new Tantrism on the basis of Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika philosophy. The
monks of this School did not practice celibacy, but were greatly devoted
to learning, were excellent preachers, and the School produced many
eminent scholars, including By-ston (1290-1364) who was a renowned
commentator on fundamental Buddhist treatises, an authoritative
historian, and a collector of Buddhist works.
Atisa’s reformed teachings, based upon the Yogacara traditions, led to
the establishment of the Bkahgdamspa School by his Tibetan disciple,
Hbrom-ston. This School took a synthetic view of the teachings of both
the Hinayana (Theravada) and Mahayana, enforced celibacy upon monks,
and opposed magic practices. This reformed School of Atisa, reorganized
and purged of much of its rituals by the great Tsongkhapa, dominates
Tibetan Buddhism today. The altered title was Gelugpa (popularly known
as the Yellow Hats), and the first Grand Lama was Geden-dub, the
nephew of Tsongkhapa. It soon eclipsed all other rival schools, and in
five generations it gained the priest-kingship of Tibet, which it fers
to this day. The fifth Grand Lama, Nag-wan-Lozang (1615-1680), 5°
Gelugpa great temporal power, and in 1650 the Mongolian chief, Gust
Khan, conferred upon him the sovereignty of Tibet and gave him A
title of Dalai, meaning ocean. Whilst his successors are now common}
known as Dalai Lamas, the Tibetans call them Gyal-wa Rin-porch®
the great gem of majesty. lt
‘The recognition of the complete and divine sovereignty of the Ds 4
Lama over the whole of Tibet is a turning point in Tibetan ve 7
Sanskrit texts, not only on religion but also on other subjects Ha
grammar and medicine, continued to be translated into Tibetan ee sral
rule of this able and widely travelled Dalai Lama. Religious and cull

324

BUDDHIST PROSELYTISM IN CENTRAL ASIA

relations with India increasingly declined, however, mainly because of
British domination and the liquidation of the old order in India.

Relations between India and Tibet, both of a political and cultural
nature, have been re-established in the recent years since Indian
independence, although the political aspect has become by far the
dominant. The Dalai Lama and a number of his followers are presently
living in India as refugees from Chinese interference in Tibet. The close
physical contact, although caused by political circumstances, must have
cultural consequences which will only be realized later.

Chapter IX

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

UNTIL RECENTLY, INDIA and China had coexisted peacefully for over two
thousand years. This amicable relationship may have been nurtured by the
close historical and religious ties of Buddhism, introduced to China by
Indian monks at a very early stage of their respective histories, although
there are fragmentary records of contacts anterior to the introduction of
Buddhism. There are numerous references to China in Sanskrit texts, but
their chronology is questionable and sketchy. The Mahabharata refers
to China several times, including a reference to presents brought by the
Chinese at the Rajasuya Yajna of the Pandavas; also, the Arthasastra and
the Manusmriti mention China. According to René Grousset, the name
China comes from “an ancient Sanskrit name for the regions to the eash
and not, as often supposed, from the name of the state of Ch'in,” the
first dynasty established by Shih Huang Ti in 221 s.c. When necessa
the Chinese would distinguish the centre of the world where they nig
from peripheral regions, and one of the ancient expressions has peoi
the modern name for China: Chung-kuo, literally “central county
The Sanskrit name Cina for China could have been derived from A
small state of that name in Chan-si (Shan-si) in the northwest of i
which flourished in the fourth century B.c., or the name may have a
down to India through Central Asia. Scholars have pointed out i
the Chinese word for lion, shih, used long before the Chin dynasty
derived from the Sanskrit word, simha, and that the Greek as. veo!
China, Tzinista, used by some later writers, appears to be a deriva
the Sanskrit Chinasthana.

326

> >it.

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

‘The formative period of Chinese Quietism, the fourth century B.C.,
was not one when outside influences on thought were general, but it
developed and expanded during a period when such influences were
growing in importance, and scholars now agree that Chinese literature
of the third century is full of geographic and mythological elements
derived from India. “I see no reason to doubt,” comments Arthur Waley,
“that the ‘holy mountain-men’ (sheng-hsien) described by Lieh Tzu are
Indian rishi; and when we read in Chuang Tzu of certain Taoists who
practiced movements very similar to the asanas of Hindu yoga, it is at
least a possibility that some knowledge of the yoga technique which these
rishi used had also drifted into China.”* The Chinese Quietists practiced
a form of self-hypnosis which has an indisputably close resemblance to
Indian Yoga. The Chinese Taoist philosopher, Liu-An (Huai-nan-tzu)
who died in 122 8.c., makes use “of a cosmology in his book which is
clearly of Buddhist inspiration.”

The first mention of India to be found in Chinese records is in
connection with the mission to Ta-hsia (Bactriana) of a talented and
courageous Chinese envoy, Chang Chien (kien), about 138 B.c.*
Fourteen years later, having escaped after ten years as a captive of the
Huns, he returned home and in his report to the Chinese Emperor he
referred to the country of Shen-zu (India) to the southeast of the Yueh-
chih (Jou-Chih) country. Chang Chien had seen bamboo poles and
cloth in Ta-hsia, which had reached there from Szechwan, a province
in the southwest of China, through India and Afghanistan. Whilst
his diplomatic mission did not succeed, his observations and reports
impressed the Han Emperor with the need to encourage trade and
Contact with India and other countries to the west.

There are other traditional stories suggestive of earlier links, but
Chang Chien’s reference to Indian trade with the southwestern districts
of China along the overland route corresponding to the modern Yunnan
toad indicates the existence of some sort of commercial relations well
before the second century B.c. The find of a Chinese coin at Mysore,
dated 138 B.c., suggests that maritime relations between India and China
*xisted in the second century B.C. Passages in a Chinese text of the first
aoa A.D. vaguely refer to Chinese trade relations with CaS in

na Sea and Indian Ocean, such as Huanz-che (Kanchi or a place

327

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in the Ganges delta), as well as to the exchange of occasional diplomatic
missions.

There can be little dispute that trade was the main motivation for these
early contacts. This is supported by finds of beads and pottery, in addition
to specific references in historical texts. By the early centuries of the
Christian era, Sino-Indian trade appears to have assumed considerable
proportions. Chinese silk, Cinamsuka, and later porcelain were highly
prized in India, and Indian textiles were sold in southwest China, The
similarity between the Chinese and Indian words for vermilion and
bamboo, ch’in-tung and ki-chok , and sindura and kichaka, also indicates
commercial links. At least by the fifth century, India was exporting to
China wootz steel (wootz from the Indian Kanarese word ukku), which
was produced by fusing magnetic iron ore by carbonaceous matter.

With goods came ideas. It has often been contended that merchants
were not likely to have been interested in philosophy or capable of the
exchange of ideas. This is an erroneous belief which disregards historical
evidence and, as Arthur Waley points out, is “derived from a false analogy
between East and West. It is quite true that Marco Polo ‘songeait
surtout à son négoce’. But the same can hardly be said of Indian or
Chinese merchants. Buddhist legend, for example, teems with merchants
reputedly capable of discussing metaphysical questions; and in China Py
Puwei, compiler of the philosophical encyclopaedia Lu Shih Chun Chin,
was himself a merchant. Legend even makes a merchant of Kuan Chung:
which at any rate shows that philosophy and trade were not currently
supposed to be incompatible.”ć

The trade routes between China and India, by both land and sea, Wel®
long and perilous, often requiring considerably more than two years Y
negotiate. The overland routes were much older and more often Us
but the sea routes gained popularity with progress in shipbuilding ™
seamanship. Formidable and frightening as the physiography of the a
routes was, the traffic through the passes and along the circuitous rou
around the mountains was fairly vigorous. . The

There were three overland routes between India and Oa
principal route lay through the northwestern regions of India W ni
converge upon Afghanistan, western Tibet, Russian arisa ing
Chinese Turkistan. Piercing through the Afghan country, and proce

328

<a.

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

along the valley of the Kabul River, with stages at Peshawar (Purusapura)
and Jalalabad (Nagarahara), it reached the Valley of Bamiyan which
commands a major pass from the Kabul region to Balkh in the Hindukush
mountains. Beyond this region, on the famous Silk Highway between
Central and Western Asia, lay Bactriana, modern Balkh, which the
ancient Indians called Balhika and the Chinese Fo-ho. On the westward
journey from Balkh, the silk route proceeded to Antiochia Margiana
(modern Meri), then to the great Parthian cities at Hecatompylos
(modern Shahrud), and Ecbatana (modern Hamadan), crossing the
Euphrates at Heirapoli (modern Menbij), and finally reaching Antioch.
Eastward from Balkh two roads led to Central Asia and China. One
proceeded northward through Sogdiana, then crossed the Syr or Jaxartes,
and went eastward through Tashkent and the passes of the Tienshan,
finally reaching Ush-Turfan. The other, which was shorter and more
frequently used by Buddhist monks, passed through the country of the
Tokharians and the Pamirs to Kashgar, and thence led to the Tarim
Basin, the modern Chinese province of Sinkiang. There was a more direct
but far more difficult route from Kashmir along the Gilgit and the Yasin
valleys to Tashkurghan where it joined the other route to Kashgar. It
was in this region that Indian, Chinese, and Western merchants met,
making it the centre of commerce for the ancient world.

From Kashgar two routes led to the borders of China, one along the
southern fringe of the Tarim Basin via Khotan, and the other along its
northern fringe to Turfan. Rivers and streams in the Tien-shan ranges
in the north and the Kun-lun ranges in the south made irrigation and
agriculture possible in the foothills. International trade along these two
toutes further strenghtened the economic prosperity of this area. Along
the southern route, a number of flourishing states and settlements,
such as Yarkand, Khotan, and Niya, practiced Buddhism and played an
extremely important role for almost a thousand years in the trade and
cultural relations between China and India. There were equally important
States along the northern route as well, whose people and languages
differed from those of the south, but who were all united in Buddhism.

urfan, situated further east on the northern route, was well within the
Periphery of Chinese politics, and thus made outstanding contributions
to Buddhism in China.

329

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The two routes from Kashgar met on the Chinese frontier at Yu

menkuan, the Jade Gate, near Tun-huang, one of the Principal centres
avellers, it would
appear that Central Asia was much more habitable during the first

of Buddhist learning. From the testimony of ancient tr

thousand years of the Christian era than it is now.

Long before the northwestern routes were opened about the second
century B.C., and long before the development of these Indianized states,
there were two other routes from India to China. One of these began at
Pataliputra (modern Patna), passed through Assam and Upper Burma
near Bhamo, and proceeded over the mountains and across the river
valleys to Yunnanfu (Kunming), the main city of the southern province
of China. The other route lay through Nepal and Tibet. We have no
contemporary description of this route but there is definite evidence
of its use. These routes were difficult and dangerous because they lay
through inaccessible, turbulent, and barren lands offering scanty food
and security. The route across Tibet was developed much later in the
middle of the seventh century, when Tibet had accepted Buddhism
and established political relations with China. During the second half
of the seventh century, a large number of Chinese monks came to India
by this route.

In addition to land routes, there was an important sea link between
India and China through Southeast Asia. During the course of the first
few centuries of the Christian era, a number of Indianized states had
been founded all over Southeast Asia. Both cultures met in this region
and the Indianized states served as an intermediary stage for the further
transmission of Indian culture and Buddhism to China. i

Ancient Greek geographers knew Southeast Asia and China (Thi i
were accessible by sea. P tolemy mentions an important but unidentifes
Chinese port on the Tonkinese coast. Ports on the western coast aie
were Bharukaccha (Broach); Surparka (Sopara); Kalyana; on the m
Bengal at the mouth of the Kaveri, Kaveripattam (Puhar); and at t
mouth of the Ganges, Tamralipti (Tamluk ). At least two of these p ;
on the Bay of Bengal—Kaveripattam and Tamralipti—were ae
the Greek sailors as Khaberos and Tamalitis. At first Indian ships in
to Tonkin (Kiao-Che) which was the principal port of China, Ae
being a Chinese protectorate. Later all foreign ships were requis

330

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

sail to Canton in China proper. Canton became a prosperous port and
from the seventh century onward was the most important landing place
for Buddhist missionaries arriving from India or Southeast Asia.

Reading the accounts of Chinese travellers, it is impossible not to be
impressed by their intrepid spirit. The perils of the desert, the danger of
the “moving sands,” and the loneliness of the journey were so complete
that there were not even any birds or animals to be seen. Travellers
often lost their way, and the sands were littered with the bones of those
who had perished. The rigours of the journey were relieved only by the
hospitality offered by the few Buddhist principalities and towns. The
route continued through the different crests and gorges of the sand-
eroded Karakorum and Kohibaba into northern Afghanistan or into
Ladhakh on the Tibetan border. South of Kapisa, then a small state
to the north of the modern city of Kabul, India commenced with the
kingdom of Gandhara, lying alongside the stretch of the Kabul River
between the Kunar and the Indus.

The sea was only slightly less dangerous. Navigation at the time was
crude and without any scientific aids except the mariner’s compass. The
timber ships—tall floundering vessels of three tiers—were apt to spring
leaks, and there was constant danger from typhoons between China
and the Indonesian islands. Fa-hsien vividly describes how he escaped a
watery grave. It took him fourteen days to reach Ceylon from Tamralipti
and another ninety from Ceylon to Java. On his journey from Java to
Canton, his ship lost its course in a storm, and it took eighty-two days
of anxious drifting to reach Shantung. Merchants and monks travelled
together. Although the traders faced the same hard climatic and physical
conditions as did the pilgrims, they were better organized. The pilgrims,
t90; were probably weaker physically because of fasts and other self-
imposed restrictions. They often depended on the goodwill of the kings
through whose kingdoms they passed for protection, and frequently
these kings, who had only recently embraced Buddhism, would coerce
the monks to stay behind. But their single-minded devotion to their
Pilgrimages and their irrepressible urge to acquire learning sustained
the Pilgrims, although tests of physical endurance did not end with the
Journey. Living in strange and distant lands was no less trying. Whilst
“ome scholars and pilgrims adapted easily to the ways of the new land,

331

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

where they either stayed for several years or settled permanently,
longed to return to their homes. :

Generally the Chinese monks set out for the famous Centres of
learning in India, like the University of Nalanda, but many Chinese

Others

scholars elected to stop at places on the periphery of India, such as the
seats of learning in northwest India and Kashmir. Of those who came
by sea, some chose to stop at the famous Buddhist centres in Sumatra
or Ceylon. Whilst some monks learned the sacred language, philosophy,
and rules of monastic life, others studied a special branch or particular
school of Buddhism. Some, upon their return to China, founded their
own new schools.

‘THE SIXTH AND fifth centuries B.c., during which Chinese philosophy was
systematized, is by far the most brilliant period of Chinese thought. The
number of philosophies was so large that this period is commonly known
as the time of the Hundred Schools. It was one of those unique moments
in the history of a nation, in which political suffering and economic chaos
are dwarfed by the brilliance of its philosophic and spiritual achievement.
Of the six main schools of philosophy, Confucianism and Taoism wert
the most important.’

It is misleading to use the general term Confucianism. Ju Chia, to
define Chinese classics dealing with a wide variety of subjects, such as
cosmology, ethics, morals, and theories of state and government. But
it was from the time of Kung-tzu, or Confucius (551-479 B.c.), that
the era of systematic philosophies began in China. Confucius wa,
strictly speaking, not the founder of a system but the editor, interpreten
and transmitter of ancient Chinese lore. He expounded in his Lanyi
(Analects), the old Chinese classics, such as J-Ching, Shih-Ching, gir
Ching, Li-Chi, and Chun-CGhiu.® In fact, the Duke of Chou, who lives
many centuries before Confucius, is honoured in China as the foundst
of the “Confucian” tradition. t:

With a magnetic personality and persuasive power of speech, Coie
attracted a number of disciples—reputedly seventy-two, although e
Analects only some twenty persons figure—many of whom were En is
of the nobility. He was China’s first and greatest teacher. H T ofi
long life as a travelling advisor to the feudal princes and as the hea

332

z

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

flourishing private school of ethics. China was at the time, so Confucius
thought, drifting away from its ancient heritage, and he felt compelled
to arrest this evil by collecting, preserving, and disseminating the records
ofancient learning. The religion prevalent in Chinese society dwelt little
on life after death and little use was made of it to deter wickedness and
stimulate virtue. Confucius did have some religious convictions but he
apparently did not use them as a basis for his philosophy. He was curious
about the invisible realm or reality and believed that man had a moral
force or character from which his effectiveness was derived, but he did
not dwell upon the origin of this all-important essence. He condemned
human sacrifice, which had been very prevalent earlier in China and
which had continued to a lesser extent until his time.

Confucius, despite his deep influence on intellectual history, was
not himself, strictly speaking, an intellectual. He was mainly a moral
teacher, aiming at improving the conduct and values of the people. The
central theme of his doctrine was the perfect development of personality,
and the proper standardization and adjustment of human relations for
the attainment of the supreme good. Until Confucius’ time, the term
Chun-tzu, son of a ruler or gentleman, meant a man of superior birth.
But Confucius changed this meaning completely, asserting that any
man who was noble, just, kind, and unselfish could be a gentleman. The
criterion was not birth but conduct.

He considered man to be essentially a social being, emphasizing the
virtues of jen (human-heartedness) and yi (righteousness). Jen, which has
been described as his “golden rule,” implies “Do not do to others what
you do not wish for yourself.” It is imperative for the individual to act
tightly and morally, but not just because it is personally advantageous
to do so.

Confucius made no claim to possessing the ultimate truth; he only
claimed to be advancing towards it through the empirical method
of observation and analysis. Perhaps more than any other thinker of
comparable stature, he made a clear distinction between metaphysics and
ethics, basing his ethics upon the nature of man and society. Confucius
Purposely refrained from teaching metaphysics, but his disciples,
“specially Meng-tzu or Mencius (371-289 B.C.) and Hsun-tzu (298-238
8.c.), included metaphysical speculations in Confucianist thought. Whilst

333

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Mencius emphasized the idealistic aspect of Confucianism, saying that

human nature was good, Hsun-tzu stressed its realism, holding that

human nature was originally and intrinsically bad.
Teaching, however, was not Confucius’ ultimate goal; he planned to
reform society through government. Society to him was an ordin

ane
of heaven and was made up of five relationships, between ruler k
subject, husband and wife, father and son, elder and younger brothers,
and friends. And since the government was to work righteously for the
welfare and happiness of society, and was in return entitled to the sincere
obedience of the people, the country should be ruled by the most capable
man available. Few could be better equipped for this task, he believed,
than himself. He patiently waited for the right opportunity to capture
political power and prove himself to be the model ruler. In this he was
sadly disappointed, although many of his disciples held government
posts and he did become for a short period Sih-Shib, Leader of the
Knights, which was not, politically speaking, a position of importance.
His doctrine that any man, regardless of birth, could become a gentleman
was a revolutionary concept in feudal Chinese society, and it is therefore
scarcely surprising that Confucius was not very successful in his lifetime.
Frustrated in his bid for political power, he died a broken-hearted and
rather pathetic old man who thought himself a failure. Indeed, his ideas
did not gain supremacy during the first century or so after his death
until they were lifted out of obscurity by Mencius, who emphasized the
idealistic trend in Confucianism, postulating that human nature was
intrinsically good. Since then, Confucianist ideas, in one form or another
have continued to influence men. Even some of the Chinese Communist
trace the beginnings of their revolutionary tradition to him. T
Taoism (or Tao Chia, or Tao Chiao) belongs to a much later pee
than Confucianism. It begins with Yang-chu, probably a contempor
of Mencius and Chuang-tzu, but it is based on the Tuo Te Ching cine
is reputed to be the work of Lao-tzu (b. 604 B.C.) whose actual existench
however, is doubted today. Some of the teachings of the Tao Te Ching -
be traced to ancient Chinese classics, and some bear close resemblance i
Indian thought. The text was edited during the Han period, having pe
given state recognition as a classic in the middle of the second centa

; ; Jarg?
B.C. It is a small book of about five thousand characters with tw? p

an

334

E

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

divisions entitled Tao and Te. The former deals mainly with metaphysics
and the latter with ethics and politics. Although the beginnings of Taoist
thought can be traced back to a time before Confucius, it is commonly
regarded as an intellectual reaction against Confucianist thought.
Taoism is both a religion (Tao Chiao) and a philosophy (Tao Chia),
and the teachings of the two are in a way mutually contradictory. As a
philosophy Taoism teaches the doctrine of following nature, whilst as a
religion it teaches men to work against nature. Taoism as a philosophy is
theoretical, and as a religion it is quite practical in outlook and aims; its
philosophy is anterior to its religion. Taoist thought is mainly a form of
escapism, preaching abandonment of human society which is considered
evil, and retirement to a life of seclusion in natural retreats. It is, however,
as a philosophy that Taoism is seen as a competitor of Confucianism.
Whilst Confucianism was originally a social philosophy emphasizing the
responsibilities of man, Taoism was originally an anti-social philosophy
emphasizing what was natural and spontaneous in man. It opposed the
educational activities of the Confucianists, and advocated that the people
should be kept in innocence. Opposed to a highly centralized system of
government and all forms of legal restraint, it condemned militarism
and exalted non-resistance. Whilst Confucianists advocated a carefully
ordered system of government for the benefit of the people, Taoists
claimed that the best government was one which left the people alone.
Whilst Confucianism was prepared to accept the world without
speculating on the origins of the universe or the nature of being, Taoism
penetrated behind the visible to explore the ultimate reality. Taoism
stands for conformity with nature and its laws. Only by the proper
development of his nature through the use of his fe (power or virtue),
and by recognizing the relative nature of things and identifying himself
with the whole, can man achieve his chief purpose, happiness. Gradual
tecognition that all distinctions, including that between life and death,
are merely relative conventions and not absolute can lead to this state of
happiness. Nature is regulated by exact principles, but it never explains
them. The perfect man penetrates the mystery of the order of heaven
and earth, and comprehends the principles of nature. He does nothing
and originates nothing; he merely contemplates the universe. The perfect
man only needs to be one with the Great One. The end of knowledge

335

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

is its own banishment, it is no-knowledge. Hence the doctrine of wy-
wei, do-nothing or inaction. By doing nothing there is nothing which
is not done.

Both tao and te are important concepts of Taoist metaphysics, The
term tao originally meant the way in which the heavens caused the
phenomena on earth. The tao was located about the celestial pole,
which was the seat of power because all revolved about it. Later,

tao
was thought of as the universal cosmic energy behind the visible order
of nature. The tao, omnipotent and eternal, produced yin and yang, the
negative and positive, female and male principles of nature, which gave
birth to heaven and earth, which in their turn produced all beings. It is
conceived as unnameable, the ultimate and absolute principle that lies
beyond good and evil, not moral but supra-moral. It is the oneness in
which both being and non-being are dialectically embraced.

Chuang-tzu (ca. 369-286 s.c.) was the earliest and most brilliant
Taoist. Original both in thought and literary expression, he sought to
defend and develop the Ching philosophy, and he reacted strongly against
all traditional thought, particularly Confucianism.

Until Buddhism entered China, the rivalry between the Confucianist
and Taoist philosophies dominated Chinese thought. Confucianism,
however, gained ground during the Han period, but not without
incorporating some Taoist doctrines. Consequently, a culture based
on the canonical writings, as edited and interpreted by Confucius and
his school, had emerged. The Former Han dynasty, in contrast to the
active policy of its predecessors, encouraged scholarship and adopted
Confucianism as the state religion. Confucianist scholars were gv"
high positions, and a rationale for political, bureaucratic, and w
relationships was sought in the Confucianist classics. The intelligent"
and the ruling classes accepted the complete supremacy of these Ce
and the government drew upon them, as they were impregnated oe
legalistic notions for a standard code of morals and ritual rules regu ae
conduct of the rulers and the ruled. During the Later Han poe i
rigid Confucianist “ceremonialism” dominated the whole a
The Confucianist classics had become highly formalized, verbos®, 4
specialized. Li, or procedural tules, actually divided society in’ a
of social positions. Even nations had come to be placed in hierar

336

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

positions; China was “the Middle Kingdom” and other nations were
“Barbarians.” Within nations there were lords, aristocrats, officials,
common people, and slaves.

In the Later Han period the literati, mentally exhausted and physically
weakened by the successive incursions of the hordes from the north,
were disinclined to follow the Confucianist principle of restraint. Fond
of explaining the matters of state and society by relating them to the
phenomena of nature, the Confucianists had pushed analogies so far
that they could not be sustained against the attacks of the iconoclasts
and sceptics, such as Wang Chung (27-97), the chief exponent of the
Old Text School that purged Confucianism of its yin-yang clements.
Through his criticism of the yin-yang theory, especially its belief that
an interaction exists between heaven and man, and by pointing out
that man’s position in the universe was no better than that of a flea
under a robe, Wang Chung prepared the way for a revival of Taoism a
century later. The increasing belief in the supernatural also undermined
Confucianist authority. Doctrinal and internal conflicts concerning the
interpretation of classical texts also had enervating effects. Powerless to
obtain relief from the oppression of the great families which maintained
their authority by driving the peasantry to slavery, extreme poverty, and
deep discontent, the Confucianists became receptive to superstition and
miracles. Whilst dynastic quarrels pulled the Empire apart from the top,
the peasants were alienated at the bottom. Furthermore, a system of
thought so completely interwoven with the Han political order as was
Confucianism was bound to be weakened and discredited once the Han
Empire declined.

It was at this time that Buddhism arrived in China. Disillusioned
in Confucianist thought, both the literati and the masses alike turned
to Taoism and Buddhism, seeking an escape into spiritualism. The
golden images of the Buddha, the burning of incense, and the changing
of sutras by the yellow-robed Buddhist monks captivated the Chinese
mind. Consequently, Buddhism was welcomed by all classes as a religion
holding the promise of relief from misfortune.

The Later Han period is conspicuous for its political decadence,
economic stress, and opulence in the urban areas, which combined to
add to the general poverty of the common people. Whilst the lax life led

337

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

many of the rich to renounce worldly pleasures by turning to Buddhism
the peasants hoped for equality in the new faith. Chinese traditional
thought had little left of its earlier vitality and intellectual curiosity to
resist the influx of Buddhist ideas.

Buddhism was more developed religiously than Confucianism and
more sophisticated philosophically than Taoism. Buddhism made no
class distinctions and thus appealed to both the educated and uneducated
the rich and poor. Mou-tzu (170-225) wrote a treatise in which he
compared the doctrines of Buddhism with the teachings of Confucius
and Lao-tzu, and tried to establish Buddhist superiority. Such writings
created a favourable climate for Buddhist teachings.

In spite of the recognition given to Buddhism by the Han Emperor
Ming, there were many Chinese literati who opposed it because their own
political, intellectual, and social interests clearly would have suffered from
its predominance. Hence, the Later Han official classes were hostile to
the introduction of Buddhism, and, since Confucianism continued to be
a powerful factor in Chinese society, Buddhism has always been subject
to the pressures of Confucianist beliefs and politics and its fortunes have
varied accordingly.

THE EXACT DATE of the introduction of Buddhism into China i
controversial. Chinese historians, as a rule, excluded religion from theit
chronicles unless it was directly related to politics or the court. They
were even less interested in foreign religions, because they were orthodox
Confucianist scholars. The Chinese peasants were generally unfamiliar
with Chinese ideographs and literature, and the contemporary Chinese
writings that have survived come from a small group of government
intellectuals who, trained in the tradition of Confucianism, suffered
from a marked attitude of superiority and exclusiveness towards foreign
countries. Chinese history was written “by bureaucrats for bureauctatè
References in these records to early Buddhism, therefore, are too fe" =
often too casual, if not altogether adverse, to give a clear picture: r
annals give scarcely any account of the people and life in the provine
In reconstructing the history of Buddhism on the basis of such at
extreme care must be taken. On the other hand, the Buddhist accou!
were naturally written less as history than as a means of enhanc ng

338

E

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

prestige and popularity of the faith, often recording easy conversions and
exaggerated triumphs of Buddhism at the Chinese Court.

Buddhism is generally said to have entered China during the reign
of Ming-ti (58-75), but it is certain that it had been heard of in China
before this time. According to a Chinese tradition, which cannot be
fully substantiated, Buddhist missionaries reached Chin China from
Mauryan India. Li Tai San Pao Chi (The Record Concerning the Three
Treasures Under Successive Dynasties), written at the end of the sixth
century, states that eighteen Buddhist monks headed by the Shrmana
Shih-li-fang, carrying a number of Buddhist scriptures, reached the Chin
Court early in the third century B-C., but the historicity of this reference
is doubtful.’ Only a few recent scholars accept this tradition as valid, but
itis significant that one of them should be Liang Chi-chao (1873-1929),
because he is otherwise quite critical in dealing with early Buddhism.”
According to a legend, the source of which, the Lich-tzu, is a forgery of
the third century or later, Confucius knew ‘of the existence of the Buddha.
Amongst other evidence cited to connect Asoka with the introduction
of Buddhism into China, mention is made of his eighty thousand stupas
some of which were said to have been discovered in China, and of relic
bones of the Buddha said to have been excavated from one of them.
Significantly, the first reference to Buddhist missionaries is in the period
of Asoka, the founder of proselytism.

Whilst Asoka was engaged in humanizing politics by incorporating
the spirit of the Buddha’s compassion into his administration, and by
promulgating the doctrine that “victory through the Dharma is the
highest victory,” China was beginning to emerge from an age of chaos
and civil wars as a unified state. This was the period of the Chin dynasty
from which China is generally believed to have gotten its name. Its first
ruler, Shih Huang-ti (246-210 8.c.), sometimes called the Chinese
Caesar, suppressed the turbulent Yueh-chih (Jou-Chih) in the south and
the Huns in the north, and built the famous Great Wall. He founded a
centralized state which was to last under different dynasties with varying
authority and changing frontiers for more than two thousand years. Shih

‘uang-ti, however, in marked contrast to his contemporary, Asoka,
violently suppressed certain philosophical and political ideas. This policy
culminated in the outrageous “Fen-shu-keng-ju” incident in which

339

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

scholars were buried alive and books were burned. The Teport that Shih
- 1

lend some strength
to the view that Buddhism had begun to trickle into China in the time of

the Mauryas. After the death of Asoka in India, the great Han dynasty
(206 B.c.-a.p. 220) arose in China, extending the Chinese frontiers,
establishing internal peace and prosperity, and laying the foundations
for the greatness and continuity of the Chinese state and culture. During
the second century B.c., the Han dynasty adopted an aggressive policy
towards its western neighbours, and opened up the Central Asian trafic
routes over the Sinkiang Desert. These routes, which first carried Chinese
political domination, later brought Indian culture.

In the spring of 121 B.c. the Han Emperor Wu dispatched a Chinese
cavalry general, Ho Chu-ping, on a military expedition against the
Hsiu-tu king in the northern territories. It is reported that Ho Chu-
ping found a golden statue of a human form which the defeated king
worshipped and to which, except for burning incense and ceremonial
bowing, no sacrifices were offered. It has been suggested that this statue
was a Buddhist image, and, if true, it is the earliest record of Chinese
contact with Buddhism. The general opinion, however, is that it was
instead a symbol of some local deity.

In 120 B.c. whilst a huge artificial lake named Kun-ming was being
dug in Shansi, a mysterious black substance was excavated. Emperor Wu
is said to have been informed that it was the residual ashes left behind
after the conflagration of the world at the end of a Ralpa or acon. The
digging of the lake is historically correct, and such an explanation could
only have been given after the introduction of Buddhism. Consequently
this is regarded as evidence of the existence of Buddhist monks at the
capital, Chang-an, in the last half of the second century B.C. >

Wei-shou (506-572), the author of the history of the Topa vig
Wei-shu, mentions that Chang-Chien, who had been sent to oes
Asia in 138 B.C. to remonstrate with the Yueh-chih, reported on Indie
Buddhism and that this was the frst Chinese exposure to Buddhist ie

According to Wei-Lueh, the history of the Wei dynasty written i i
280, the envoy of the Yueh-chih king orally transmitted a Bu ae
scripture to an official of the Han Court in the year 2 8.c. ‘This se
credible because it includes accurate biographical details of the Bu

Fluang-ti imprisoned a group of Buddhist monks may

340

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

and mentions some technical terms of the Buddhist order. By the first
century of the Christian era, some small Buddhist communities were in
existence in the capital itself. An official Chinese history, The Record of
the Later Han, mentions that Liu Yang, the Prince of Chu and the half-
brother of Emperor Ming, was a practicing Buddhist with the Emperor's
approval. He worshipped the Buddha along with Huang-ti and Lao-tzu,
and gave alms to Buddhists from a foreign land in Hsu-chou, which lay to
the east of Loyang, the new capital of the Later Han. There were already
Buddhists amongst the gentry, and missionaries were freely received in
their homes. If Buddhism was being adopted by the nobility and if foreign
missionaries were active in the district of Loyang and Hsu-chou, it is
likely that Buddhism had already been known in the western provinces
of Shensi and Kansu for some time. For those who came from Central
Asia, it was customary to pause at Tun-huang in Kansu province after
crossing the desert before entering China and proceeding to Loyang by
way of Lian-chou and Chang-an. These major cities and provinces along
the trade route already bustled with foreign caravans and the Buddhist
missionaries who came with them.

At first Buddhism flourished in China chiefly amongst the foreigners,
including merchants, refugees, hostages, and adventurers, who had
brought it from their own countries. The official histories of China,
however, do not concern themselves with the social and cultural life of
these foreign groups on Chinese soil: “The Confucian World-conception
recognized only one kind of relation between the inhabitants of the
barbarian wastelands and the Middle kingdom: they are the people from
afar, who attracted by the radiance of the emperor's virtue, came to offer
their ‘tribute of local products’ as a token of their submission.”

According to a famous story, which is based on Chinese historical
sources such as the Mou-tzu, the validity of which has been questioned in
recent years, Buddhism was first “officially” introduced into China during
the reign of Ming-ti of the Later Han dynasty. He is said to have had a
vision of a golden man with sunlight passing from the back of his neck
Who flew about in space and came to earth. Upon being advised by a court
scholar that the man in the vision was probably the Indian Buddha, he
sent envoys to the country of the Yueh-chih to procure Buddhist sacred
texts. The envoys returned, accompanied by the Indian monk Kasyapa

341

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Matanga. They also brought an image of the Buddha

and a Number of
Buddhist scriptures.”

Variations in the details of this story found in different sources
)

a of the dream,
have cast doubt on its authenticity. Since Buddhism had already been

and the remarkably accurate description of the Buddh

introduced into China before the time of Ming-ti’s dream, there would
appear to be little justification for fabricating the story unless it was
considered expedient to do so, and the chief purpose of this story
perhaps to make the entry of Buddhism into China appear official and “by
appointment.” It claims that Chinese Buddhism had its beginning when
the Emperor himself ordered the importation of Buddhist teaching and
provided it with images, temples, scriptures, and monks. Nevertheless,
it is certain that during Ming-ti’s reign many foreign monks, whose
names have not been preserved, were in Loyang and Chang-an. From
this time onward, China began to receive a succession of Indian monks
and texts.

Around the middle of the first century, Buddhism, regardless of its
reception at the Chinese court, had found acceptance in the region north
of the River Huai, in eastern Honan, southern Shantung, and northern
Kiangsu. The most important city of this region was Peng Cheng (Hsu-
chou), a flourishing centre of trade on an eastern extension of the Silk
Highway. Some scholars have suggested that the “Church of Loyang
was a later offshoot of the “Church of Peng-Cheng.” Tonkin, now 1
Vietnam but part of southern China at that time, was also a pr incipal
seat of Buddhism. This centre, however, was set up by monks who had
arrived by sea, and who were possibly in contact with the Buddhist cent
of Peng-Cheng in the north. X

From the middle of the second century the growth of Buddhism
in China began to accelerate. Emperor Huan (147-167), like Ch ¥
wangying (Liu Yang, The Prince of Chu), enshrined the Buddha 12
his palace together with the Huang-ti (Yellow Emperor) and Lao- th
In 166, Siang-Chieh of Shantung Province came to the capital A
presented the emperor with a letter admonishing him for his aa
and reminded him of the teachings of the Buddha, which implies ®
Buddhism had already gained a widespread following in China g

‘The steady translation of the Buddhist scriptures into Chines? bee

was

342

in.

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

in the middle of the second century. If any Buddhist scriptures had
been translated into Chinese before this, there is no record of them. A
Parthian monk, An Shih-kao, arrived at Loyang in 148, marking the
beginning of a period of intense literary activity. He is the first of those
personalities of Chinese Buddhism whose historicity is not questioned.
He was followed by Chih-lou-chia-chian (or Lokakshema) from the
Yueh-chih country. An Shih-kao chiefly translated Hinayana into
Chinese, and Chih-lou-chia-chian translated Mahayana scnptures.
Soon Chinese intellectuals became interested in Buddhism, and began
to make their own annotations and commentaries. From the middle of
the second century to the beginning of the third, a number of Buddhist
teachers, translators, and scholars were active at Loyang. According to
Tao-an’s catalogue, some ten acharyas translated about fifty-one Buddhist
scriptures during this period.

Information about the organization of the monasteries and monks at
Loyang is scanty, but it is known that the missionaries were cosmopolitan.
‘Their group is known to have included at least two Parthians, one of
whom was Shih-kao, three Yueh-chih, two Sogdians, and three Indians.
Hardly anything is known about the relations of the Buddhist community
at Loyang with its immediate surroundings and with the Chinese court,
but it is clear that it was not an isolated enclave of foreign culture. Many
of its Chinese lay devotees belonged to the cultured classes. It has been
generally thought that there were no Chinese monks until the fourth
century because the Han Emperors permitted only foreigners to embrace
Buddhism; there is, however, evidence to the contrary. At the end of the
second century a Chinese monk Futiao, a convert of Shih-kao, not only
helped the foreign monks in their translations but did some of his own.
He also wrote an original work Sha-mi-shih-hui Chang-chii, the Preface
of which is still extant.

The gradual disintegration of the Han Empire began around the
middle of the second century, and the authority of the central government
was undermined by a variety of disruptive forces, including the provincial
warlords. The Han hold over the western regions slackened, and a civil
War began which brought about the downfall of the dynasty in 220. The
Later Han dynasty was succeeded by three states, the Three Kingdoms:
Wei in the north with its capital at Loyang, Wu in the central and

343

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

lower part of the Yangtze Valley with its capital at Nanking
?

3 and Shu
in Szechwan with its capital at Chengtu. Their rule lasted for a

; bout half
a century, but it was a period of almost constant war whose prominent

heroes have since filled the pages of Chinese literature. The fortunes of
war varied with no single power dominating. Political unity was restored
briefly in 281 by the Western Chin dynasty with its Capital at Loy
but it too collapsed in 316 under the mounting pressures of int
uprisings and Hun invasions.
The Eastern Chin dynasty began in 317 with its capital at Nanking,
It lasted until about 420 when its rule was terminated by an ambitious
general, Liu Yu, who set up the Liu Sung ruling house, bringing under
its control the territory along the Yangtze Valley and south of it. There
was a succession of short-lived Chinese dynasties in southern China:
the Liu Sung (420-479), Chi (479-502), Liang (502-557), and Chen
(557-589). The capital of the Southern Dynasties remained Nanking.
In northern China, the Northern Wei dynasty was founded by the
Toba people in 386 with Loyang as their capital. Wei or Toba kings were
of the Turkic race. Having unified northern China in 440, the Toba Wei
remained in power until 534. Their kingdom was then divided into two
states, the Eastern Wei (534-550) and the Western Wei (535-557), with
capitals at Yeh and Chang-an respectively. These in turn were replaced
by the Northern Chi (550-577), with Yeh as capital, and by Northern
Chou (557-581), with Chang-an as capital; both were of non-Chinese
origin. 5
With the unification of northern China under the Northern Wei
dynasty in 440, there began the era commonly referred to as the Norther ‘
and Southern Dynasties. This lasted more than a hundred and fifty ee
until China was finally unified in 589 by the Hui house. This was 2 perio
of political and social unrest with frequent dynastic and regional va
but it was also a period of transition in which Buddhism helped to bring
about major changes in Chinese life and learning.” È
Under the patronage of the foreign dynasties, Buddhism he
firmly established in northern China where there was already 4 larg
non-Chinese population. Some of the rulers who invaded norther? T
western China were already devout Buddhists, and, by the end of t A
third century, Buddhist establishments in the two northern capitals

ang,
ernal

344

/ a

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Chang-an and Loyang numbered 180 and their clergy 3,700. By 381
nine-tenths of the people of northwest China were Buddhists. Emperor
Wu (265-290) of the Chin dynasty showed great interest in Buddhism
and built many monasteries throughout his empire. Emperor Min
(313-316), during his brief reign, also built two monasteries at Chang-an.
Yuan-ti (317-322) and his successors, during their rule of about a century,
founded 17,608 Buddhist institutions throughout the kingdom and 263
volumes of Buddhist texts were translated. The Northern Wei dynasty
favoured Buddhism, and during their reign Chinese Buddhist art made
spectacular progress. An exception in this dynasty was Emperor Tai-Wu
who decreed the suppression of Buddhism in 446. But other Wei kings
made Loyang and Chang-an the greatest centres of Buddhist activity in
China. Thousands of temples were built and the number of monks and
nuns allegedly rose to two million. Many important monk-scholars, both
Indian and Chinese, such as Kumarajiva, Bodhiruci, Tao-an, Hui-yuan,
and Fa-hsien, worked and lived in China during this period.

In southern China also, Buddhism was accorded royal patronage by
the Eastern Chin dynasty. Some of the rulers of the succeeding houses
were also practicing Buddhists. For example, the founder of the Liang
dynasty, Emperor Wu (502-549), a Confucianist, was converted to
Buddhism, and frequently gave public lectures on Buddhist scriptures.
He collected the first Chinese Buddhist canon, wrote on Buddhism, and
even entered a monastery three times to lead the life of an ascetic. Yang-ti,
the Sui Emperor, also declared himself in favour of Buddhism.

The Eastern Chin dynasty hoped to reassert Chinese supremacy and
culture over the entire country. Although they adhered to traditional
Chinese culture, there was some doubt in their minds about its total
efficacy. Consequently, they turned towards Buddhism as a rallying force
to strengthen them for the recovery of the north. Buddhist monks and
scholars responded to this attitude in full measure, and they intensified
their missionary and religious activities, incorporating in their discussion
and writing Confucianist and Taoist learning. Soon an alliance between
the monks and the elite emerged, rendering the monastic community
Powerful enough to assert its independence from the weakened secular
authority of the Chin rulers, and “to maintain what amounted to an
empire within an empire.”

345

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

By the time the Han dynasty had declined, different tren

s ; 5 ds had already
begun to develop in Buddhism in China. One, with its

` à emphasis on
control of the mind, concentration, and the suppression of the Passions
y

was inspired mainly by the translations of An Shih-kao and was Hinayana
in nature. The Prajna School, based largely on the translations of Chih-
ch’an, favoured Mahayanism and was more inclined to probe into the
ultimate reality behind external appearances. This aspect of Buddhism
began to develop in the middle of the third century and ultimately became
the dominant tenet of Buddhism in the South. At about the same time,
during the fourth century, Neotaoism was gaining wide acceptance
amongst literary circles in southern China, and this factor made a
rapprochement with Buddhist thought somewhat easier. The Prajna
School preached the philosophy of Sunyata, or emptiness, somewhat
resembling the Neotaoist doctrine of non-being. A Taoist, once united
with the tao or non-being, could become eternal and manifest himself
in any form at any place, just as the Buddha was eternal and formless.
The recognition of this affinity paved the way for closer interaction
between these two schools, and for a gradual growth of Buddhism in
China. Another fact encouraging closer relations between the Buddhists
and Neotaoists was that some of the Buddhist monks originated from
the same social class as the Neotaoists. The head of the powerful Wang
family of the early Eastern Chin dynasty, Wang Tao (276-339), who
was also the Prime Minister of the Empire, was a devoted patron of
Buddhism. Other members of his family were equally enthusiastic and
some of them had even joined the order of monks. Foreign monks also
actively participated in this rapprochement. In southern China, at the
end ofthe fourth century, under the patronage of the Eastern Chin a
the number of Buddhist establishments in the Kingdom alone was 1,78
temples and there were 24,000 monks and nuns. In Chien Wing, th*
capital, the names of thirty-seven temples have survived. Thus, during =
third and fourth centuries, Buddhism became firmly rooted in the mid ie
Yangtze Valley, as well as in the older centres of the north. Between ™
years 265 and 317, sixteen translators are known to have rendered 4
works into Chinese. ally
Rarely in history does a movement receive support from tw m
opposed forces for separate political reasons. At this time Buddhi

346

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

in China was supported by both the traditionalists and the foreigners;
either party would probably have taken a hostile attitude in different
circumstances. Buddhism developed along different lines in northern
and southern China, reflecting the needs of local polity. For instance,
in the north it was associated with state control, and in the south it
asserted its independence of the state and worked in association with
the Chinese élite.

Although Buddhism was at times helped by certain political situations,
it would be wrong to overemphasize this point. It was not always
supported by the ruling and official classes and at times faced intense
resistance and hostility. Without the inherent vitality of its doctrine, its
sense of purpose, the capacity to endure suffering, the devoted service of
its monks, and the brilliant intellectual activities ofits scholars, Buddhism
could not have evoked such a response from people as culturally advanced
as the Chinese. Buddhists not only had to make Chinese society more
gs, but they also had to translate Buddhist

receptive to their teaching

doctrine into Chinese.

The task was spread over several centuries. Sanskrit and Pali are
completely different from Chinese in form and style. Sanskrit has a
highly elaborate grammatical system, whilst Chinese has no systematized
grammar; Sanskrit is highly inflected, alphabetic, and polysyllabic, whilst
Chinese is uninflected, ideographic, and mainly monosyllabic. And
whilst Indian literature is reflective, imaginative, and discursive, Chinese
literature is terse, concrete, and practical. Even in temperament the two
peoples differed: “The Chinese had shown little disposition to analyse
the personality into its components, while India had a highly developed
science of psychological analysis. In concepts of time and space there were
also striking differences. The Chinese tended to think of both as finite and
to reckon time in life-spans, generations, Or political eras; the Indians,
on the other hand, conceived of time and space as infinite and tended to
think of Cosmic eons rather than of units of terrestrial life.”

‘The political and social values of the two peoples were equally alien.
Whilst love of the family dominated Chinese society, Buddhism taught
a universal ethic and a doctrine of personal salvation outside the family.
The Buddhist ideal was ascetic and celibate, and it clashed with the
Chinese popular view that to have a son was not only a duty but also

347

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

essential for those sacrifices without which the departed Spirit could
Not

have peace. Whereas the Chinese aimed at establishing a good society

D
i n the ultimate
reality which was inseparably bound with what was visible. Despite the
decline of Confucianism, the task of the initial Buddhist missionaries
was a formidable one.

Indian thought went far beyond this goal and reflected upo

A factor which must have helped the early Buddhist missionaries
was the absence of a complex and highly developed Chinese religious
system. The ancient Chinese had to struggle against the forces of nature
in northern China to build their civilization. This made them intensely
practical and disciplined, but allowed them little time for reflection. Thus,
the Chinese religion was a set of simple beliefs ofa plain-thinking people,
comprising the worship of ancestors and the forces of nature, a belief
in a supreme god or heaven, a belief in divination, and a vague concept
of the retribution of good and evil. By the time Buddhism appeared in
China, however, Chinese religion had matured somewhat, but it did
not approach the richness of Buddhism. The concepts of karma, the
transmigration of the soul, the world as illusion, worldly pleasures as
impediments to spiritual advancement, celibacy and asceticism, charity,
compassion, and love ofall beings, are only “a few drops in that vast flux
of Indian religious and cultural invasion.”

Most of the Indian monks who migrated to China did so during the
five centuries following the third century. During that time a stream of
Chinese monks arrived in India to study Buddhism in its homeland,
and to collect authentic Buddhist texts. Many of them left records of
their experiences and observations. Most of these records have perished,
some are known only by their titles, whilst brief extracts or stray passas*®
from others appear in China’s vast literature. Only three records ue
preserved in full: Fa-hsien’s Fo-Kuo-chi, Asiian-tsang’s Hsi-yu- as ;
I-tsing’s Nan-hai-ki-kuei-nai-fa-chuan. Whilst nearly all the ee
monks eventually returned home, most of the Indian monks who Ww"
to China remained there. =

Much less is known of the Indian monks who went to China ae
of the Chinese pilgrims who went to India. The Chinese had @ deep
interest in objective observation and in recording history. Consequen?
none of the numerous Indian monks who went to China has left 216°

348

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

of his experiences and impressions. Three Indian monks, Kumarajiva,
Paramartha, and Bodhidharma, are held in particularly high esteem by
Chinese Buddhists. Bodhidharma has even been deified by Chinese
Buddhists, and the school of Dhyana Buddhism, which he founded and
which is known as Ch’an in China and Zen in Japan, is still alive in East
Asia, especially in Japan where its main centre is Kyoto. There were many
others who enjoyed local or regional fame and are mentioned in Chinese
dynastic histories. A host of others were absorbed in translating Sanskrit
texts, working singly or jointly with Chinese scholars.”

The first recorded Indian missionaries to China are Dharmaratna
(Chu-Fa-Lan) and Kasyapa Matanga (Chu Mo-t’eng) who reputedly
arrived at Loyang at the invitation of the Han ruler Ming-ti in 67, and
for whom he built the White Horse Monastery.’ These two monks
initiated the work of translating Buddhist texts. The great emphasis
placed on these translations by the missionaries may have been, apart
from the need to interpret the Buddhist doctrine to the Chinese people,
motivated by the traditional Chinese reverence for the written word.
Kasyapa Matanga wrote a treatise entitled Sutra of Forty-two Sections,
known by Chinese Buddhists as “the first ray of the Law,” which has
since gone into numerous editions and versions. Four other works, now
vanished, are also attributed to him. The Swéra is not a translation but
an original work written to introduce the essentials of Buddhism to
the Chinese.

Despite unending wars and political unrest in China, Buddhist
missionaries continued to arrive with new texts. They poured into
China through different routes, but mainly from Central Asia. Towards
the middle of the second century, Ngan Shih-kao (An-Shih-kao or
Lokottama) , the famous Parthian prince of Pakor who had renounced
his throne, arrived and embraced Buddhism. He settled in the White
Horse Monastery at the Chinese capital, and spent the rest of his life
from 148 to 168 propagating Buddhism and encouraging the work of
translation. He himself translated more than thirty texts into Chinese
and had a great influence on his Chinese followers, who considered his
School of translators unrivalled.

One of the important Central Asian monks was Dharmaraksha,
better known by his Chinese name, Chu Fa-hu. Born in Tun-huang, he

349

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

was a Yueh-chih and went to China in the third century after travelling
and studying widely in India. He was an accomplished linguist p
an authority on Buddhism. Most of his life was spent at the White
Horse Monastery where he worked for the expansion of Buddhism and
translated Sanskrit texts into Chinese. He died about 317 at the age of
eighty-seven. He reportedly knew thirty-six languages, and he translated
at least two hundred and eleven works into Chinese in the years between
284 and 317, including the La/ita Vistara; ninety of these translations
have survived.

At the invitation of a Hun king of the northwestern region of China,
Dharmakshema (Fa-feng) , an outstanding Indian monk, came from
Central Asia to the Hun court at Liang-chou in 414. The King, Meng-
hsun, became a Buddhist and Dharmakshema, after prolonged study
of the Chinese language, translated about twenty-five works, twelve of
which have survived. They include Maha Sannipata Sutra, an important
canonical work of Mahayana Buddhism, and Asvaghosa’s Buddha
Charita. Rivalry over Dharmakshema arose between the Hun king and
the Chinese Toba Wei rulers, and the scholar met a tragic death at the
hands of his patron in 434 because he was anxious to return to India. He
served as royal adviser to Meng-hsun, and reputedly possessed remarkable
occult powers.

Whilst Dharmakshema was working at Liang-chou, the followers
of Kumarajiva, who had initiated a new epoch in the transmission 0
Buddhism to China, were engaged in their prodigious translation work
at Chang-an, then the capital of a small state of Later Chin. Kumara
(343-413) was the son of an Indian scholar, Kumarayana, who had
renounced his hereditary title to a ministerial position in Keip
From early childhood, Kumarajiva was educated in India in poi
doctrines and literature under the celebrated Bandhudatta, who was m
converted to Mahayanism by his former pupil. Kumarajiva became W! :
known for his scholarship and attracted disciples from Khotan, E
Yarkand, and other parts of eastern Turkistan. Indeed, his reputat
as a superb Buddhist teacher was the cause of his imprisonment
Emperor of northern China, Fu Kien (or Fu-Chien), sent fo
but the Kucha ruler was reluctant to release him. A war €n “ie
Kumarajiva was taken to China in 383 as a prisoner. This was 2P

350

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

of political upheavals and Fu Kien, whilst attempting to conquer the
Eastern Chin, was himself defeated and killed in 383. General Lu Kuang,
anon-Buddhist, subsequently captured Kumarajiva and badly mistreated
him during his long period of captivity, refusing to release him in spite
of repeated pleas from the Yao family to send him east to the capital at
Chang-an. It was not until after the accession of the Chin Emperor Yao
Hsing (or Yo Chang, reign 393-415) that Kumarajiva was freed and
invited to Chang-an in 401. Chinese chronicles record that the Chin
Emperor was a devoted follower of Buddhism, that he held Kumarajiva
in great respect, and appointed him the Rajguru or Kuoshih.

Welcomed as a national preceptor, he was accommodated at the
monastery known as the “Great Monastery” of Chang-an. During the
last twelve years of his life, when he was free to preach, his prestige rose
immensely and he won an unsurpassed reputation as an interpreter of
Buddhism. Through his efforts, a large number of Buddhist monasteries
were established in northern China, and an overwhelming majority
of the people were converted to the new faith. Having mastered the
Chinese language during his captivity, he plunged directly into literary
work. He corrected many earlier imperfect translations, made new ones,
and founded an immense bureau of translators with over eight hundred
scholars on the staff. More than one hundred and six Buddhist texts,
mostly Mahayana, were translated, fifty-six of which are still extant.
Amongst the translations were the works of Nagarjuna, the great
second-century exponent of the Madhyamika school and one of the
greatest names in Mahayana literature. No books are as popular with
Chinese Buddhists as Kumarajiva’s translations of Vimalakirtinirdesa
and Saddharma Pundarika, the most important scripture of Mahayana
Buddhism.

Kumarajiva was much more than a brilliant translator, for he was
an original thinker of great genius as well. He gave Chinese Buddhism
philosophic basis and created a sound Buddhist literary tradition in
China. He wrote several original works in Chinese, including the Life
of Asvaghosa based on a vanished Sanskrit source. He is traditionally
regarded as the first exponent of Madhyamika doctrine, and his work
introduced a new era in Buddhist China. From then on Mahayanism
became the dominant school of East Asian Buddhist thought. Through

351

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

his propagation of Nagarjuna’s doctrine of Sunyata, Kumarajiva T
able to overthrow the general practice of interpreting Buddhism in the
light of Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. Because of the imprint he left on the
intellectual history of Asia, he may be regarded as one of the greatest
Indians of all time. But he was more than an Indian, for he symbolized,
as Bagchi points out, “the spirit of cultural collaboration between Central
Asia and India and the joint effort made by the Buddhist scholars of these
countries for the dissemination of Indian culture in China.”

According to contemporary Chinese records, he was honest, loyal,
humane, tolerant, hard-working, and self-sacrificing, although according
to some legends he was once tempted into marriage by the beauty of a
woman. He repented of his lapse, and it is reported that thereafter he
would always begin his sermons with the apologetic exordium: “Follow
my work, but not my life which is far from ideal; But the lotus grows
out of mud. Love the lotus; do not love the mud.”

The main burden of transmitting Buddhist knowledge to China fell
on Kashmir, because of its physical proximity and because of its well
developed tradition of Buddhist studies. Amongst Kashmir’s more famous
scholars are Sanghabhuti, who reached China in 381; Buddhabhadra, the
translator of Avatamsaka Sutra; Gautama Sanghadeva, Punyatrata (404),
and his pupil Dharmayasas; Buddhayasas, who was Kumarajiva’s teacher
in Kashmir; and Vimalaksa, an associate of Kumarajiva.

Many Indian monks went to China by sea. Two Kashmiri teachers,
Dharmayasas and Buddhabhadra, used this circuitous route at ty
beginning of the fifth century. Buddhajiva, a collaborator of Bah
reached Nanking in 423. In 431 he was followed by Gunavarman (Kut
pa-mo). The Emperor invited Gunavarman to his court at the se
the Chinese monks of Nanking, and did the monk the unique hono 5
receiving him personally, Gunavarman died within a year, but $° o
was his scholarship and industry that he translated eleven texts, i At
which are still extant. Gunavarman was a royal prince from ee for
and had travelled throughout India as a hikshu, as well as ee
over thirty years in Ceylon and Java. In Ceylon he had helped go the
the Buddhist Sangha and in Java, where Hinduism prevaile i ef
time, he founded the first Buddhist monastery on the island. elp he

of his important contributions to Buddhism in China was the 3

352

i F

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

rendered towards the conferment of higher ordination on the Buddhist
nuns or bhiksunis.

In 435 Gunabhadra (Kiu-no-po-to-lo) reached Canton by sea. For the
next thirty-three years, until his death in 468, he continued to work in
Nanking. He was a great authority on Mahayana and specialized in the
Avatamsaka Sutra. Welcomed and encouraged by the Emperor Tai-tsu of
the Sung dynasty, he translated seventy-six works of which twenty-eight
have survived. The political disorders which broke out in China during
453-454 did not result in the loss of royal favour for Gunabhadra even
though he was working at the monastery of Sin-See at the invitation of
the rebel chief Yi-Siuan, who was defeated and beheaded.

During the sixth century, amongst the Indian monks who went to
China by sea, Paramartha (ca. 498-569) is the most famous. He was
widely recognized in India as a distinguished and accomplished scholar,
and took with him to China a large collection of Buddhist texts. Arriving
in Canton in 546 at the request of the Chinese Emperor Wu-ti of the
Liang dynasty, who had dispatched a goodwill mission to India asking
the King of Magadha to send a Buddhist scholar, Paramartha was given
a Chinese escort to assure his safety during his journey to the capital
at Nanking. Paramartha worked incessantly for the next twenty-three
years, first at Fuchuang, and later at Nanking and other Buddhist centres.
He did much original writing besides translating seventy Buddhist
works, of which only thirty-two are extant. His contribution to Chinese
Buddhism rivals that of Kumarajiva. War, chaos, and famine had caused
Buddhism to decline in China, but Paramartha, through his immense
literary activity and religious enthusiasm, gave it a new and vigorous
life during the latter days of the Liang dynasty (502-557) and the early
Part of the Chen dynasty (557-589). He, Bodhiruci, and Hsiian-tsang
at the three most important Vijnanavadin translators of Sanskrit texts
into Chinese. Paramartha established a Buddhist philosophical system,
the She-lun-tsung, the basic text of which was his translated work
Mahayanasamparigrahasastra. This school had eminent disciples and
Prevailed for about eighty years before it was finally absorbed by the
Dharmalakshana school founded by Hstian-tsang.

Of all Indian monks, the most celebrated in China is Bodhidharma
(or Dharmabodhi). Son of an Indian king, he is an almost legendary

353

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

figure and several miracles are attributed to him.?! He was regarded

the twenty-eighth Patriarch in India. The arrival of Bodhidharm
Canton in about 526 at the invitation of the Liang Emperor Wu w

as
ain

‘aS Very
significant in the history of Buddhism, because he introduced into Chin

the Ch’an (a phonetic variation of the Sanskrit Dhyana) school, and thus
became the first Patriarch (Tsu or Tsung) of this school in China, He did
not undertake missionary tours and he wrote no books. He disapproved
of reading the canonical texts of the Tripitaka, although he used to
recommend the Lankavatara Sutra. He taught the value of meditation to
find the Buddha in one’s own heart, and he himself meditated in silence
for nine years in the Shao-Lin monastery on the Sung Mountain. Because
of his influence, Buddhist monasteries became much less intellectual
and more meditative. It is not surprising that a practical people like
the Chinese should have preferred those aspects of Buddhism which
seemed to them more natural and practical, such as the Dhyana exercises.
By the end of the sixth century the long period of political unrest in
China had come to a close, and the beginning of the seventh century saw
the emergence of the T'ang dynasty (619-907). Despite the opposition of
the Confucianist literati, Buddhism continued to gain ground in China
where it had already assumed a distinctive Chinese personality. Before
the T'ang period there was some persecution but it was ineffective and
intermittent and failed to arrest the progress of Buddhism. In 405 TE
out of every ten families in northern China embraced the Buddhist fat
By the end of the fifth century, it is asserted that the whole of China,
north and south alike, was Buddhist. According to an official oo
made between 512 and 545 in the kingdom of Wei in northern Chin
there were thirteen thousand Buddhist shrines and monasteries and =
thousand foreign monks living in the capital alone, whilst an even Bee
number of indigenous monks were scattered throughout the county i
the sixth century both northern and southern China had staunch imp n 7
patrons of Buddhism: for example, Queen Hu of the Wei dynasty a
north and Emperor Wei of the Liang dynasty in the south. S
of Indian merchants, monks, and travellers had settled in the P i
cities of China, and in the sixth century there were probably mel
three thousand Indian Buddhist monks and ten thousand Indian
in the Loyang province alone.

354

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Soon after the T’angs came to power in China, northern India was
ruled by one of the most famous patrons of Buddhism, Harsha, and
the Buddhist University, Nalanda Mahavihara, was the most important
centre of learning in India. It had been founded in the fifth century
by the Gupta ruler Kumaragupta I (ca. 415-455).? The intellectual
demands of Nalanda were severe, and discipline was strict. Only the most
distinguished and talented could teach at Nalanda. The routine of daily
life was rigorous, divided mainly between study and religious rites. The
prestige of the University was high in Indian society and in the Buddhist
world. Throughout the T’ang period, the most glorious of Chinese
history, Nalanda attracted numerous Chinese pilgrims and visitors. In
fact, the story of the Nalanda Mahavihara has been reconstructed mainly
from accounts left by Chinese pilgrims, particularly Hsiian-tsang and
I-tsing.

An accomplished scholar at Nalanda, Prabhakaramitra (Kuang che),
whose pupils later became famous professors at Nalanda, was the first
Indian scholar to go to China during the Tang period. He arrived in 627
at the age of sixty-three. The Emperor Tai Tsung was deeply impressed
and gave him a very courteous reception. Prabhakaramitra rendered
some Buddhist texts into Chinese which have survived, but he lost the
King’s favour because of the Confucianist literati’s machinations and
died disappointed in 633.

Of the monks who followed Prabhakaramitra to China, the best-
known was Bodhiruci (Fa-hi) from South India.” Reaching China by
sea in 693, he translated one of the most extensive works of Mahayana,
the Ratnakuta Sutra, Hsiian-tsang, who brought the manuscript back
With him from India, died before he could make much progress with its
translation, Bodhiruci, after seven years of strenuous labour, completed
the work in 713, and his Chinese biographer recounts that the Emperor
himself took down the final notes in his own hand at a ceremonial
Sathering when the translation was completed. This was the last of
Bodhiruci’s fifty-three translations. He died in 727, it is said, at the age
of one hundred and fifty-six.

Vajrabodhi and his disciple Amoghavajra were amongst the last

Ndian teachers to go to China. Born a royal prince and educated at
Nalanda, Vajrabodhi reached Canton in 720 in his fifty-eighth year to

355

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

present to the Chinese Emperor a copy of Mahaprajnaparami A
behalf of the King of Ceylon. Before he died at Loyang in 732, he had
translated a number of mystical Buddhist works into Chinese and had
numerous disciples. Famed for his mastery of Tripitaka and Tantric
Buddhism, he introduced the Mantra sect of Tantric esotericism, based
on Mulamantras, into China. The doctrines and practices of the Mantra
cults were confined to circle of initiates, and Vajrabodhi initiated only
two monks into the Tantric rituals during his stay in China. Amoghavajra
carried on his work more successfully, and translated about seventy-seven
texts, mainly dealing with zanżras and dharanis, before he died in 774, He
was the spiritual adviser of three emperors of the T’ang dynasty—Hstian-
tsang, Shu-tsung, and T’ai-tsung.

China, in the latter part of the T’ang period, was somewhat politically
disturbed, as was India, and contact between the two countries had
virtually come to an end. Yet, a few Indian missionaries went to China
and, whilst they did some valuable work, they lacked the zeal and ability
of their predecessors. The most important missionary of this later period
was Dharmadeva (Fa-tien), who came to China in 973 during the Sung
period, and translated about 178 Sanskrit texts. He headed a board of
translators which was responsible for rendering 201 volumes of the Sanskrit
texts into Chinese between 982 and 1011, despite his death in 1001.

Recalling the story of these monks and the enormous difficulties
involved in translation, admiration for their patience, perseverance, and
faith is increased. To learn Chinese with modern aids and technique
is a formidable enough task, but in those days to learn it and also
communicate doctrinal beliefs intelligibly to a people whose own cay
of reflective thought was relatively less developed and accommodating:
was a monumental achievement.

Although a large number of Indian monks and scholars had
visited and worked in China, it was not until the end of the
century that a notable Chinese scholar, Fa-hsien, visited India. 5 ha
Buddhism had been established in China and Chinese one 5
acquired intellectual proficiency, the long and arduous P e T
to India were infrequent. There are stories of some Chinese P oe
captured by Kaniska who had lived in northern Punjab, and stof r
Chinese scholars who may have visited India in the third centu

already
fourth
4 Until

356

/

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Chinese monk, Chu-She-Ling, set out in 260 for India but elected to
stay in Khotan where he found the Indian knowledge he was seeking.
On the authority of I-tsing, the Chinese scholar who visited India in the
seventh century, it is said that twenty Chinese monks went to India by
the Yunnan-Burma route, and a monastery called China-Sangharama
was especially built for them near Bodhgaya by King Sri Gupta. However,
evidence of Chinese visitors to India from the fourth century on is more
definite, and the flow of pilgrims during this period was far greater than
the few surviving names would suggest.

By the fourth century China had developed her own powerful tradition
of Buddhist philosophy. The two most illustrious names in Chinese
Buddhism during this period were Tao-an of Hsiang-Yang and Hui-
Yuan of Lu-Shan. Tao-an (312-385) carried on his missionary activities
north of the Yangtze River and was undeterred by the hardships prevalent
at the time, thus exemplifying the true spirit of the Buddha. He converted
a great many Chinese intellectuals to the Buddhist doctrine, sending
them afterwards to different parts of the country to preach Buddhism.
Through his disciples and his writings he created a new spirit in Buddhist
China. He was the first Chinese scholar to reexamine and correct earlier
translations of Buddhist texts and to compile commentaries on them.
‘The foreign monks rarely knew Chinese well, whilst their Chinese
collaborators were ignorant of Sanskrit and Pali. More important, he
became acutely aware of the invalidity of interpreting the Buddhist
Scriptures in the light of the Chinese classics, a practice which had
become common during the preceding century, mainly because the
Chinese intellectuals did not have access to the originals or even to
scholars who were masters of the original texts. Tao-an’s organization
of intensive translation activity at Chang-an later provided the much-
needed trained Chinese talent to help Kumarajiva. Realizing the need
for closer contact between Indian and Chinese scholars, he invited a
number of Indians from Central Asia to China, and, more important,
encouraged the Chinese to visit India. It was he who had initiated steps
to invite Kumarajiva to China.

After the fall of Hsiang-Yang, Tao-an’s disciple, Hui-Yuan (344-
416), founded the monastery of Lu-Shan and initiated a new school
of Buddhist thought, the White Lotus Society, which introduced the

357

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

cult of Amitabha. The Society has left an indelible mark on Chinese
Buddhism, because it was the origin of Ching-tu (the Pure Realm
movement), still a major philosophical doctrine of eastern Asia, Hui-
Yuan was closely associated with the metaphysical speculations carried
on in Chien-Kang and Kuai-chi on the philosophies of Lao-chuang and
Prajna, and also with the propogation of dhyana exercises, Under his
direction, Neotaoist metaphysical speculations were mixed with Prajna
thought, and the purity of his monastic discipline attracted Confucianist
literati. He was the epitome of the “gentry Buddhism” of South China,
He laid the foundation of the independent status of the Buddhist
community there. His disciple, Tao-Sheng (ca. 360-434), provided a
bridge between the Buddhist centres at Lu-Shan and Chang-an, and
made a significant contribution to Chinese Buddhist thought, especially
the Nirvana School.

Whilst the tradition of Buddhist thought was thus maturing in its
new environment, the appeal made by Tao-an for Chinese scholars to
undertake religious study-tours to India had begun to draw responses. In
399, fourteen years after Tao-an’s death, Fa-hsien, accompanied by four
other Chinese monks, set out on his pilgrimage from Chang-an to India
by the Central Asian land route. Emperor Yao Hsing, the royal patton
of Kumarajiva, was still ruling in northern China. At the frontier Fa-
hsien and his companions met another party of five Chinese monks who
were also going to India. They joined forces, taking the southern i
through Khotan and Kashgar. Negotiating difficult terrain, Fa-hsien A
his companions entered India through Kashmir. He stayed at Patalpu
for three years, studying Sanskrit and collecting manuscripts. There K
as yet no Chinese translation of the entire Vinaya, the Buddhist ne
monastic discipline, and Fa-hsien strongly felt the need for oag V ie 4
he was still in India, however, Kumarajiva arrived in Chang-an in sa
was instrumental in translating the Vinaya of the Sarvastivadin Saf
For another two years Fa-hsien stayed at the monastery of Te R
copying Buddhist sutras and images. He returned to China a some
collaborated with Buddhabhadra, an Indian monk, in translating r
of the works he had taken back with him. Fa-hsien left behind 7 ii
of his travels, Fo Kuo Chi, which gives an individual accou”! :
during the period of the Gupta Empire.

358

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Little is known of the companions of Fa-hsien, except for Pao-yun,
who learned Sanskrit in India and, after his return home, translated a
number of Buddhist texts. A succession of Chinese pilgrims followed
Fa-hsien. Of those who travelled to India in the fifth century, five names
are known, but information about them is fragmentary.”

Whilst Fa-hsien was in India, a group of fifteen Chinese monks led
by Che-mong started for India in 404 through Khotan and the Pamirs
The difficult mountain routes compelled nine of them to return to China,
and one died of fatigue, but the remaining five completed their journey.
They visited places of Buddhist learning, collected texts, and set out on
their return journey by the same route. Three of the five died on the way
back and Che-mong reached China in 424 with only one companion.
The account of his travels, which he composed in 439, is lost.

Another party of twenty-five monks led by Fa-yong commenced its
journey to India in 420 following the northern Central Asian route via
Turfan and Kashgar and passing over the Pamirs to Kashmir. Not much
of their travels in India is known, except that Fa-yong, having visited
important Buddhist centres throughout northern India, returned home
by sea.

In 518 an empress of the Wei dynasty sent an official mission to India
under Song-yun to offer presents to Buddhist sanctuaries and bring back
texts. Song-yun’s mission toured the northwestern regions of India and
returned in 522.

The Wei rulers, who were such great patrons of Buddhism, lost their
authority in 535. Until the rise of the Sui dynasty in 589, royal interest
in Buddhism was somewhat diminished. Although the Sui dynasty
(589-618) was short-lived, it revived the efforts for direct contact with
India. Emperor Yang (605-616) dispatched a mission led by Wei-tsie
and Tu Hing-man; this mission travelled by the overland route and
toured extensively in Central Asia and northern India.

After the rise of the T'ang dynasty, Chinese monks began to visit
India in unprecedented numbers. During the seventh century, Sino-
Indian cultural relations were particularly strong. Although the imperial
clan claimed descent from Lao-tzu and thus favoured Taoism, they
“xercised a policy of religious toleration. Nestorian Christianity, Islam,
and Manichaeaism were introduced during the T'ang period and found

359

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Chinese converts. Buddhism gained unprecedented influence under ¢}
s he

patronage of some of the T’ang rulers, and had far more Support than
Taoism. In the eighth century in the imperial capital Chang-an alone
there were ninety-one Buddhist monasteries compared to sixteen Tame
monasteries, Over the whole country, Buddhist temples numbered more
than three times those of the Taoists. Buddhism was supported by all
factions of society, no doubt aided by the peaceful conditions and the
patronage of the rulers. But the rise of Harsha in northern India, the
enormous reputation of Nalanda University as a seat of Buddhist learning,
and the fame of Indian mathematics, art, medicine, and astronomy
must also have been largely responsible for the sudden influx of Chinese
scholars to India.

‘The first monk to visit India during the T’ang period, and by far the
most eminent, was Hstian-tsang (ca. 596-664). A Chinese nobleman and
the son of an orthodox Confucianist scholar, he embraced Buddhism at
an early age and acquired a national reputation as a learned and eloquent
monk, well-versed in the Confucianist classics. He left China for India
in 629, two years after the accession of the T’ang Emperor, Tai-tsung
(627-649), who was even more disposed towards Buddhism than his
father, Kao-tzu.

Hsiian-tsang travelled by the northern route through Central Asia,
and, after a perilous journey through the desert, reached Kapisa in a
For the next fifteen years he travelled extensively throughout northem
and southern India. Charming, courtly, and learned as he wasi ie
was honoured by the great rulers of the time, Harsha of Kanauj ie
Bhaskaravarman of Kamarupa. Hstian-tsang stayed at Nalanda for i
years studying Buddhist philosophy with the greatest scholar of #
age, Silabhadra. It was customary for a monastery to honour @ as f
visiting monk with the presentation of a precious holy book s
Hstian-tsang collected 657 volumes, many of which were rare te shat
prize possessions. So heavy were his manuscripts and sacred relic a
they were carried by twenty horses. He was remarkably methodic ti
industrious in making notes of his observations, and enjoyed a ag 0
both as a writer and as a translator. Yet it is surprising that he visited
mention the great Buddhist stupa at Sanchi, which he must hav" allude
since it is of exceptional importance to the Buddhists. Nor does

360

/ O

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

to Ajanta, which was at the height of its glory when he was there. In
645 he returned to China by the southern Central Asian route. He left a
detailed account of his travels, Si-yu-ki (or Ta-Tang Hsi-yu-chi), which is
an invaluable source of information on Central Asian and ancient Indian
history. Indian culture owes a great debt of gratitude to Hstian-tsang, for
he came to India at a time when Buddhism was in a state of decline, and
by taking away many texts of Buddhist philosophy, he made it possible
for them to be preserved in their Chinese versions. The Sanskrit originals
of many of these texts have been completely lost in India.

When Hsiian-tsang left India, Emperor Harsha, who had received
him with honour and reverence, gave him an almost royal send-off, as
well as generous gifts of money to defray his expenses. His Indian farewell
was more than matched by the elaborate royal reception prepared for him
in China. From the border to the capital he was conducted with state
dignity, and, on his arrival at Chang-an, he was given a great ovation by
the people, and the emperor declared a holiday in his honour. It is rare
in history that such a reception is bestowed on a scholar, much less on
a teacher of an alien creed.

For the next nineteen years until his death Hstian-tsang worked
incessantly, translating the Sanskrit texts he had brought from India.
Altogether, he translated seventy-five works. It was principally due
to the efforts of Hsiian-tsang, supported by I-tsing, that the essence
of all the five courses of Buddhism—Hetuvidya, Abhidharma, Vinaya,
Madhyamaka, and Yogacara—taught at Nalanda University during its
most flourishing period, was introduced into China. Whilst these courses
later underwent certain changes, their fundamental teachings conformed
to the doctrines introduced by these two Chinese scholars.

The Emperor T’ai-tsung sent his second embassy to the court of
Harsha in 643 whilst Hsiian-tsang was still in India. The ambassador Li
Yi-Piao was assisted by a Chinese officer, Wang Hsiian-tse. ‘The latter
led the third imperial mission to India in 647.% He helped Hstian-chao,
a Visiting Buddhist monk and scholar, to return to China. In 664 Hsiian-
chao returned to India to collect medicines and contact physicians.
From 643 to 758 the T’angs maintained occasional diplomatic relations
With several Indian kingdoms, including Udayana in the Swat Valley,
Magadha, Kashmir, Gandhara, and with Ceylon.

361

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Biographies survive of sixty Chinese monks who Visited Ind
the latter half of the seventh century. The best-known of these
I-tsing (also spelled Yi-Ching or Yi-tsing) whose scholarship

ią during
monks js

s ) at the time
was excelled only by that of Hsüan-tsang in China. He was, however,

not as interested as Hsüan-tsang was in Buddhist philosophy, but, like
Fa-hsien, laid greater emphasis on the observance of monastic rules, In
671, soon after Hsüan-tsang’s death, I-tsing set out for India on board
a Persian vessel which arrived at Tamralipti in 673. He was the first
important Chinese pilgrim to travel by sea to India, and he appears to
have done so because of the unrest caused in Central Asia by Arab and
Tibetan invasions. From this time on, more and more pilgrims and
visitors followed the maritime route. Before I-tsing reached India, he
stayed for about two years in Sumatra, which was at that time part of
the Srivijaya Empire. He left a record of Buddhism there in Nan-hai-
chi-kuei-fa Chuan (A Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms in the Southern
Archipelago).

In India, I-tsing spent ten years at Nalanda, visited places of Buddhist
interest, and collected about four hundred manuscripts which he took
back to China in 695. He was mainly interested in visiting Buddhist
stupas, shrines, and monasteries, as well as centres of learning. He
made a special study of Indian medicine and often made comparati
references to the Chinese system. On his return he devoted himself to
interpreting and propagating Buddhist doctrine. His most monument
work of translation was one of the Buddhist codes of monastic disciplinė
entitled Mulasarvastivinaya. He also completed a short Sanskeit-Chin®
dictionary, and wrote brief biographical notes on fifty-one oe
pilgrims who visited India between the reigns of T’ai-tsung and Emprs
Wu.

‘The last Chinese to come to India during the T'ang
Wu-kong. He was a layman, and was dispatched in 751 t
Indian ambassador back to his kingdom, Kapisa. During his 1
Wu-kong was converted to Buddhism. He spent many year 5 ing {0
Buddhist texts and travelling about the country before retur”
China in 790. fe ceased

During the later years of the T'ang Empire, Chinese MOP
travelling to India, presumably because of the political unrest 10

period wis
o escort 9

362

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

the loss of Chinese authority in Central Asia, and the decline of
Buddhism in India. The breakdown of Chinese authority in Central Asia
is of significant importance in the history of Sino-Indian relations and of
Buddhism. China’s retreat from this area at a time when Islamic power
emerged left a vacuum which was to be filled by Muslim domination,
thus separating the areas of Indian and Chinese culture. But by this
time the Chinese need to draw upon Indian learning had considerably
diminished. For, by the end of the T’ang dynasty, the Chinese Buddhist
canon was practically complete, and almost all the important Sanskrit
sutras had been translated into Chinese.

After the downfall of the T'ang dynasty, there was a short period
of political anarchy in China, during which five military leaders made
themselves kings in Kaifeng and Loyang, and about thirty thousand
Buddhist monasteries were destroyed. In 960 the Empire was reunited by
Chao Kuang-yin, who founded the Sung dynasty (960-1270). Between
960 and 1039 it appears that a number of Chinese pilgrims went to India,
but their travels have only a limited interest. Contact between India and
China practically ceased after the eleventh century.

Whilst the last emperors of the Sung dynasty were still ruling, Gengis
Khan was emerging as a world power. He and his descendants, the
Mongol or Yuan dynasty, were to govern China from 1206 to 1368, and
to play a significant role in the development of Buddhism. However,
before the Yuans, three other alien ruling houses had established
themselves contemporaneously with the Sungs, and these are worth
Notice in the history of Buddhism in China. One, the Liao (907-1125),
Was established by the Mongol tribe called the Khitans, and, during its
tule, Buddhism spread in Mongolia and Manchuria. The Khitans sub-
Jugated northern China and set up a large number of Buddhist temples
throughout their kingdom. During their rule, between 1031 and 1064,
the Liao edition of the Chinese Tripitaka was printed. The Liao rulers
Were also responsible for engraving the sutras on stone.””

Whilst the Liao dynasty was still ruling Manchuria, a chieftain of the

u-chen (Jurchen) tribe, Akuta, successfully broke away from the Liao
tule and set up the Chin dynasty (1115-1234). He sacked the Liao capital
in 1122, and in 1126 he even captured Kaifeng, the capital of the now
clining Sungs, forcing them to move southward and extending the

363

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

frontiers of his empire as far south as the Huai River. Peking became the
Chin capital, until they were forced to evacuate it in 1215 under pressure
from the Mongols, who brought the Chin dynasty to an end in 1234,
Buddhism was already flourishing in the areas the Chin dynasty had-
taken over, and the new rulers continued to support the Indian religion,
The Chin dynasty sponsored the printing of an edition of the Chinese
Tripitaka during the period 1148-1173.*8
The third northern dynasty was the Hsi-Hsia which ruled Kansu,
including the famous Buddhist centre at Hun-huang, from 1038 to
1227. Although they claimed descent from the Toba, their language
seems to have been related to Tibetan rather than to Turkish. Buddhism
was their official religion and, under the auspices of the Imperial House,
the last of the extensive Buddhist translating or publishing projects was
undertaken, involving the production of a mass of Buddhist texts in
their language. Hsi-Hsia manuscripts and printed books have survived
in large numbers, and were still being printed in Hsi-Hsia well into the
Mongol period. i
The Mongols, the first foreign conquerors to dominate the whole v
China, came into closer contact with Buddhism after their conquest ot
northern China. Kublai Khan was the greatest ruler of this dynasty; and
it was during his rule that Marco Polo visited China. Kublai Khan had
been converted to Buddhism and was especially well disposed towards
the Lamaistic Buddhism of Tibet. Probably the Great Khan sought ©
use the support of Buddhist and Taoist churches for political ends: s
subdue the stubborn Sung legitimism of the Confucianists. Although
tolerant of other faiths, he was an enthusiastic Buddhist. Whenevè! s
was called upon to act as arbitrator in the ecclesiastical debates bea
: ; is verdict
Buddhists and Taoists, an important feature of the times, his ver A
always favoured Buddhism. He had relics of the Buddha brought 7 ot
Ceylon, and appointed a young but learned Tibetan Lama, Ph
Matidhvajasribhadra (1240-1280), as imperial preceptor; this i a
held in the greatest respect by the Mongo! royal family, and Lam
Buddhism was made the national religion of the Mongols. entet
Kublai’s successors patronized Tibetan Buddhism with eve" 8%
fervour. How highly Lamaism was held in the imperi estin of
is illustrated by the edict of 1309 which stated that anyor®

he

364

/ a

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

striking a Lama could have his hand cut off, and that anyone insulting
a Lama would lose his tongue. The Confucianist literati criticized the
Mongols for granting excessive privileges to their rivals, and accused
the Lamas of committing acts of cruelty and debauchery. Whilst this is
the usual Confucianist literati criticism of Buddhist monasticism, some
of their accusations were valid. Buddhist temples were favoured by the
Imperial Court with huge grants of land. According to the registry of
the Hsuan-Cheng Yuan, there were 42,318 temples and 213,418 monks
and nuns in China.

The Mongol rule was terminated in 1368 by Chu Yuan-chang, who
founded the Ming dynasty which ruled China for about three centuries.
Chu Yuan-chang came from a poor farm labourer’s family and was a
former Buddhist monk at the Huang-ch’ieh monastery in An-hui.” The
first Ming emperor often organized Buddhist assemblies and discussions.
The last great emperor of the Ming dynasty was Yung-le (1403-1424),
who was himself a Buddhist, although he raised the Neoconfucianist texts
to the status of the ancient Confucianist canon. By this time, however,
Buddhism had lost contact with India and had become an independent
and integral part of Chinese life.

The Manchu or Ching emperors, although not Chinese themselves,
Were great supporters of Chinese culture. They continued to patronize
Buddhism, especially Lamaism. They were also interested in Ch’an
Buddhism. During the reign of Kang-hsi (1662-1721) there were
79,622 temples and 118,907 monks and nuns in the country. Whilst the
number of monks was rather small, when compared with the estimate
of 740,000 monks during the T’ang and Sung periods, the number of
temples was the highest in history.”

The outstanding feature of Ming Buddhism was the achievement
of harmony between the different schools, largely brought about by
Chu-hung, a sixteenth-century monk. He also inaugurated a movement
for the development of Buddhism amongst the laity. Intellectuals
and wealthy Buddhists organized groups of laym in the cities and
founded societies for welfare and missionary work. This movement
Sained considerable strength, and even university scholars began to
study Buddhist philosophy and history. This lay movement reached its
Peak during the closing years of the Manchu dynasty, and the unique

365

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

role played by laymen has continued in modern Chinese Buddhism Th
growing popularity of this movement probably aroused the anti-Buddhis

feelings of the Confucianist literati, and, consequently, Buddhism
3 y

hy from the
officials and intellectuals of the Ming and Manchu dynasties, now faced

active hostility. An expression of this antagonism is seen in the 1898
publication of a work by Chang Chih-tung entitled Chuan Hsueh-pien,
in which he advocated the reorganization of Chinese education by
appropriating Buddhist property for schools. His theories commanded
considerable support from the Chinese intelligentsia. More than three
hundred Buddhist temples were destroyed during the first quarter of
the present century.

which had always faced considerable indifference and apat

However, Buddhism has always remained important in China,
especially amongst the common people. The new pressures of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries even forced something
of a revival of Buddhism, and it subsequently played some part as an
intellectual force in the revolution that overthrew the Manchu dynasty.”
‘The Chinese could more effectively combat the Western cultural invasion
by centring their defence around their Buddhist traditions, which, they
contended, were democratic, humanistic, liberal, and in fact contained
all that the West could claim and more. The Buddhist reformer, Liang
Chi-chao, for instance, said that the doctrine of karma was superior t0
the theories of Darwin and Spencer. Another stimulus, of somewhat
doubtful value, came during the period of the Sino-Japanese War an
World War II when some Buddhist temples were rebuilt in the} ae
occupied areas, and links between China and Japan were strengthens
for political reasons. he

‘The revival of Buddhism in China was aided by the foundation of t é
Mahabodhi Society in 1891 with its headquarters in Ceylon. The ae
was begun by Dharmapala with the declared objective of reviving d
Dhamma. Its activities since then have included holding internati
Buddhist conferences, publishing Buddhist literature in Asian a$ ye
European languages, and sending missions abroad. ee eetonss

Aroused by the anti-Buddhist measures of the various adminis pties
and by the criticisms of the Chinese Renaissance leaders in the ae
and thirties as well as by the criticisms of Marxist thinkers i

366

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Buddhist monks, such as Ti-hsien, Yin-kuang, Tao-chieh, and Tai-shu,
intensified their work to revive and reform their faith. Buddhist centres
attempted to restore and update the true teachings of the Buddha. The
most active reformer was Tai-hsu (1889-1947), who led a movement to
reform the clerical system, temple property, and teachings. He established
contact with Buddhism abroad, sent monks to study in India, Tibet, and
Japan, and founded Shih-chieh fo hsueh Yuan (the Universal Buddhist
College), with the declared objective of modernizing Buddhism.
Consequently, numerous works of Buddhist literature began to appear
in ever-increasing numbers. Between 1920 and 1935, as many as fifty-
eight Buddhist periodicals were published in China.

The growing popularity of Buddhism in Western countries, the
emergence of the Buddhist countries of Asia as free nations, and the
rehabilitation of Buddhism in independent India have all led to the
intensification of Buddhist activity everywhere.

Whilst it is not easy to assess accurately the position of Buddhism
under the Peoples Republic of China since 1949, there is no doubt that
it has been confronted with extraordinary difficulties. It not only has
incurred resistance from the conservative and nationalistic Confucianists,
but has also encountered opposition from a highly autocratic and
centralized régime which is based on an openly materialistic, atheistic,
and anti-religious ideology. The Communist government has instituted
anti-Buddhist measures, confiscating temple lands, taking over schools
and publishing houses, and reducing the Sangha in size. Until 1950 the
Buddhist monasteries of China derived most of their income from land
holdings received as gifts from their patrons. The Land Revenue Act
of June 1950 led to the confiscation of agricultural land belonging to
Buddhist temples and monasteries. This economic loss to the monasteries
compelled a large number of monks to leave them. In the cities the monks
Were made to set up light industries on the premises of the monasteries
or vacate them for the use of local factories. Buddhist monks and nuns
Were compelled to study the works of Mao Tse-tung and were subjected
to “thought reform.” However, realizing the significance of Buddhism
and its value in Chinese life and society, the government has adopted
4 policy of controlling rather than suppressing it. They formed the
Chung kuo fo chiao hsieh hui (the Chinese Buddhist Association) in 1953,

367

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

bringing all Buddhist monks and laymen into one Organization und
er

sibs: nt about half
a million monks and one hundred million followers, During the course
N

of this revolutionary process Buddhists have no doubt been used by the
at the large
Buddhist populations in other countries. Peking’s refusal to allow the
Chinese Buddhists to participate in the Seventh Congress of World
Fellowship of Buddhists, held at Sarnath in 1964, disturbed Buddhists
all over the world and deepened their anxiety about the fate of Buddhism
in present-day China; they suspect that this religion of peace is being
turned into a tool of political propaganda and international conflict. They
fear that the Peking regime has been particularly severe on Buddhism,
because of the great hold this religion has always exercised, and perhaps
still exercises, over the minds of the Chinese people.

central control. In 1958 the Association claimed to represe

government as instruments of propaganda, mainly directed

Tne History oF Buddhism in China is like that of any powerful foreign
culture, which, on encountering an equally powerful local culture, has to
undergo the varying processes of confrontation and assimilation. During
the initial period of impact, the local people remain indifferent to or even
unaware of the gradually mounting influence of the foreign culture. It
is only when the alien culture begins to assume sizeable proportion’
that it is generally regarded as threatening, and reaction sets in. But ue
struggle is not then between a purely foreign and a purely local ulis
because the so-called foreign culture by that time has come to sr
some native character, and its opponents have become conscious ° ae
shortcomings of their own heritage. Finally, there begins 4 P ies, he
compromise on both sides, conscious and unconscious, during whic z $
foreign culture is either naturalized or nationalized, serving 4S * Fi
group within a changed pattern of the society, or it is assimilated i
traditional culture giving rise to an entirely new culture. This D he
period of imperceptible growth is vital, because if the r09" = e
incoming thought are not firmly planted, it cannot survive the ee

reaction against it. And no foreign culture, however advanced os z nee

by political power, can find strong roots unless it meets 4 dosp

in the local culture,

for iS
Buddhism has often been denounced in China, not $0 much

368

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

philosophical content as for its foreign character. The fact that Buddhism
dominated Chinese thought for centuries and continues even now in
its naturalized form as a principal factor in Chinese life, plus the fact
that it reached this position through voluntary acceptance in a society
which regarded itself as superior to all others, are not so much a unique
testimony to the brilliance of its teachings but indicative of the vast gap
in Chinese cultural life which it must have filled.

At the time Buddhism was introduced into China, the cultural
atmosphere of the country was quite conducive to its development.
Neither Confucianism nor Taoism possessed a highly developed spiritual
character. Confucianism, with all its emphasis on the adaptation of
human personality to the social order, or on welding together the cult
of heaven, the family system, and the state, neither sought nor provided
answers to metaphysical or religious questions. It gave the ordinary man
neither strength to see him through the ordeals of life nor solace in the
hour of death. If Confucianism—begun primarily as a political theory
prescribing a moral code for the ruling class—served as a religion in later
forms, it was because its social basis was supported by a spiritual faith
acquired under the influence of Taoism and Buddhism.

Taoism, on the other hand, indulged in religious speculations in
search of an undefined something which would offer hope of eternity.
Like Confucianism, it sought to bring man’s life on earth into harmony
with the life and law of the universe (Tao), but unlike Confucianism it
set out to attain this ideal not by laying down rules for human conduct
but by an intuitive emotional method.

Buddhism seemed to meet the intellectual needs of both the traditional
creeds, and it fitted neatly into the emotional gaps left by them. The
glowing spirituality of Buddhism and its elaborate forms of worship
greatly attracted the Chinese, who also found in it fulfilment of the
natural human hope for life beyond death. The Buddhist emphasis
on salvation through moral effort and the law of karma made a deep
impression on the moral nature of the Chinese. For the middle and
lower classes, Buddhism declared that the humbler folk, who suffered so
Unjustly at the hands of the Confucianist nobility, would be reborn into
higher rank, whilst the cruel officials and noblemen would descend the
ladder to suffer for their misdeeds. Buddhism, as it was being elaborated

369

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in northern India in the first centuries A.D., substituted ti
blissful rebirth, at the feet of the various Buddhas and Bod
Nirvana, the final delivery from the cycle of rebirth, The

he hope ofa

hisattvas, for

paradises of

ar in China: “The

beatific vision thus took the place of the former desire for extinction; the
39

wisdom—a little arid perhaps—of primitive Buddhism gave way either
to a powerful esotericism, in the last analysis fairly close to Chinese neo-
Taoism, or to a religion of the heart, full of tenderness and forgiveness,
likely to appeal to the loftiest souls as well as to console the afflictions of
the masses. In both cases Buddhism, with its religiosity, with its charity,
with its faith, brought to China spirituality that it still lacked.”

Yet, Buddhism was in several respects alien to the Chinese
temperament. Its doctrines were too subtle and metaphysical for
the essentially practical and material Chinese mind. The Buddhist
negation of life, renunciation of family relationships, and practice of
celibacy were contrary to Chinese, especially Confucianist, ideas and
traditions. Monkhood meant that men avoided their primary task of
parenthood, thus failing to continue the family line, and it made them live
on charity. I

The period of the great expansion of Buddhism, after the collapse ot
the Later Han dynasty, was one in which China was divided into three
states and suffered from foreign invasions; wars and political upheavals
were common, life and property were constantly in danger, and 7 >
possible that the intellectuals and the masses alike turned to Buddhism
seeking religious salvation. Only a literate could get satisfaction ae
Confucianism and only an exceptional man could become immo" : A
Taoism, but Buddhism offered salvation to everyone. Monks Wise : 9
but anyone could be a lay Buddhist and there were always podis 0
anxious to help him. The self-denial, hard work, and reforming 2“ ole
the missionaries must have elicited the admiration of the simple is
whereas the Buddhist writings, mainly translations of the see
attracted the intelligentsia. na more

Changes in the thinking habits of the intellectuals made Ce the
receptive to Buddhism. The young scholars were up in arms Die a
hair-splitting and formalized interpretations of Confucianis!™ ters 0
new mood had emerged throughout the country opposing thes

Avalokitesvara and Amitabha thus became most popul

as

370

R

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Confucianist propriety, seeking man’s liberation into a life beyond the
sphere of all restraints: a life in which man could act, think, and speak
freely according to the dictates of human emotions. Such a mood could
have easily led to admiration for the Buddhist renunciation of worldly
pleasures in quest of freedom and the true path.

Magnificent monasteries, towering pagodas, and temples, and
beautiful statues, with which the country abounded, drew admiration
even from the opponents of Buddhism. A letter from a Confucianist
scholar to the prime minister of the Western Chin dynasty describes the
monastery built by Tao-an in the fourth century: “Teachers and disciples
total seven hundred, and of fasting and study there is no wearying. There
is no dazzling of the eyes and ears of common men by resort to magical
tricks, nor is there any trampling on the difference among the lesser
monk by resort to threats or authority. Furthermore, teachers and pupils
courteously respect one another. It is a magnificent sight, and one such
as I have never seen before.”

‘The tolerance of the Chinese Buddhists and their willingness to
make adjustments to indigenous doctrines must have made them more
acceptable. The Chinese deity of Heaven, for example, has a place of
honour in certain Buddhist ceremonies; a Bodhisattva was introduced as
an incarnation of Confucius; Buddhist temples were built in conformity
with the Chinese system of magical ideas, known as feng shut; Buddhists
occasionally adopted Tao, the key term of philosophic Taoism, for
Buddhist dharma; and translations of phrases or passages which might
offend traditional Chinese susceptibilities, conditioned by concepts of
Confucianist morality, were deleted or edited. For instance, Indian words
indicating love and respect for a Bodhisattva—‘kiss” and “embrace’—
were dropped; and phrases such as “the husband supports his wife” were
teplaced by the “husband controls his wife” and “the wife comforts her
husband” became “the wife reveres her husband.” Buddhism gave women
a higher place in society than did Chinese traditional concepts.

Buddhist monks also borrowed the Taoist vocabulary because of the
purely linguistic difficulty of translating Buddhist concepts into Chinese.

Sanskrit language had nothing in common with Chinese. Every
Chinese character carries a traditional connotation which is liable to
lead to strange distortions when employed to interpret foreign concepts.

371

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Consequently, the Buddhist adopted Tao (absolute, Cosmic force
bodhi (illumination), for arhat (Buddhist saint) the T:
chen-jen (true man) was used, and so on. It is, however

) for
aoist expression,

i , also possible that
in the initial stages Buddhism found Taoism a convenient medium for

the spread of its own ideas. Buddhist nirvana and arhat were, for instance,
more easily acceptable to the Chinese as Taoist wu-wei and chen-jen,
Buddhists made use of some Confucianist expressions also; for example,
for sila (morality or pious conduct) they used the Confucianist Asiao-hsun
(filial submission and obedience). In the sixteenth century when the
Catholic missionaries faced the same problem they solved it ina similar
way, by borrowing equivalent terms from Confucianist philosophy.

Since tenants on the Buddhist temple lands were better treated than
those on lands owned by Confucianist aristocrats, poorer people readily
became Buddhist tenants, later accepting the faith. Merchants made use
of the Buddhist monasteries as banks, stock exchanges, and warehouses,
and the monasteries grew in importance as repositories of capital. The
temples bought more and more land, thus gaining an increasing influence
in the country’s economic life. Habitual association with Buddhist
monks, even if it were for material reasons, encouraged the people to be
well disposed towards Buddhist doctrine, because the monks worked p
selflessly and the inevitable human response to this example was one of
sympathy.

As time passed, not only did the emperors and the common pert
become Buddhists, but even distinguished men of learning increasing!
turned towards Buddhism. In the eleventh century the famous reformer
statesman, Wang An-shih, whose tablet was placed in the an
temple next to that of Mencius, deplored the fact that scholars sous) A
new ideas and inspiration in Buddhism. Yet his son wrote a
Buddhism. Even the chief exponent of Confucianist Sees ‘a
Hsi, complained in the twelfth century that the educated man a i
himself compelled to draw upon Taoism and Buddhism for ¢ $
and ethical concepts.

3 Jes
But the rise of Buddhism in China was not without religious Bo
controversies, and persecutions. Confucianism and Taoism have

janis™
been jealous of Buddhism and have often persecuted it, Coe 7
persistently appealing to Chinese nationalism and cultural pue®

372

aoe

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

were four major anti-Buddhist persecutions in 466, 574, 845, and 955.
None of these, however, was nation-wide or lasted more than a few years.
Upon the death of the persecuting king, almost invariably the policy of
suppression was reversed by his successor and Buddhism resumed its
former influence. Chinese persecution of Buddhism tended to be directed
mainly against monastic establishments rather than against monks and
devotees. That such persecution was political is clearly suggested by the
fact that all edicts for the persecution of Buddhism emphasized that it
was a national disaster and a humiliation for the celestial kingdom to be
influenced by an alien creed.

As long as Buddhism remained alien it was tolerated and was even
popular, but as soon as it sought naturalization it aroused opposition.
Confucianists and Taoists, often in conflict with each other, combined
to resist the ideas from India, which had come to be looked upon by the
Chinese people as “the Land of the Buddha” and even as “the Western
Heaven” from which nothing but the great truth could come.” In the
fifth century, Ku Huan wrote J-Asia-/un, a treatise against Buddhism,
denouncing it as inferior to the Chinese system. He was not the first
scholar to criticize Buddhism, but he was the first to do so at length. He
sought to prove that Indian nature and customs were evil, and thus that
Buddhism was unsuited to Chinese culture. Whilst Ku Huan’s criticisms
were essentially motivated by nationalistic prejudice, there were other
Chinese scholars, such as Fan Chen and Hsun-chi, who were motivated
by intellectual and political considerations.

Buddhism was widely popular under both the Southern and Northern
dynasties, although Confucianist and Taoist scholars demanded its
Outright suppression. Persecution in the south, however, was not nearly as
bad as in the north. It is indeed surprising that the first major persecution
should have taken place under a dynasty which is chiefly remembered for
its patronage of Buddhism. In 446 Toba Emperor Tai-Wu or Shih-tsu
(424-451) of the Northern Wei dynasty, after a series of anti-Buddhist
Measures, finally decreed that the Buddhist religion was to be completely
Wiped out. Not one monk, one scriptural text, or one image was to
remain in existence. Consequently, there was a wholesale destruction
of Buddhist temples, stupas, and texts and numerous monks were
executed. It is thought that the Taoist Kou Chien-chih and his friend

373

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the Confucianist minister, Tsui Hao, were instrumental in instigat;
this persecution. Bating
The persecution lasted for seven years until reversed by the
Emperor, Wen-Chang, in 454. The new decree, in fact, commence
praising the Buddha, and then endeavoured to explain the persecution
as an attempt to eliminate certain evil elements from the monastic

order. Buddhism emerged from this persecution wit!

new

d by

n increased vigour
and determination to expand. The Buddhists renewed their work by

constructing the world-famous caves of Y un-kang. This undertaking
of large-scale rock sculpture is a monument as much to the artistic
techniques and religious zeal of the Buddhists as to the prestige and
graceful restitution of the ruling dynasty under whose patronage these
caves were constructed. Within sixty years of the Buddhist revival there
were about fourteen thousand temples in the Northern Wei territory
alone, and during the next twenty years the number reached thirty
thousand with more than two million monks and nuns. At this time,
Buddhism was more widespread in northern China than it was in the
south. In the southern kingdoms, for example, under the Liang dynasty
(502-556) there were, according to a Tang source, about 2,864 temples
and 82,000 monks and nuns.

More than a century later, in 574, before Buddhism reached its peak
during the Sui and Tang dynasties, Emperor Wu (reign 561-577) of
one of the short-lived dynasties, the Northern Chou, anxious to ae
Confucianism the state religion, ordered the abolition of all Taoist a
Buddhist organizations, There had long been a fierce controversy benes
Buddhists and Taoists about the priority of Lao-tzu (now considered ;
mythical figure) over the Buddha. The Taoist claimed that Lao-tzu i d
gone to India where he had become the Buddha. Both sides fabricat®
evidence to Support their contentions. In 520 a historic debate be
this question was held in the presence of Emperor Hsiao-™ Be
the conclusion of which the Taoists were severely defeated and t i
claim was pronounced unfounded by a committee of one hundre an
seventy scholars headed by Wei-shou. This brought Hsiao-ming ang
down upon the Taoists, whose chief spokesman in the debate,

Pin, escaped execution only by the intercession of the Buddhist Jagi
Bodhiruci. Later, in the reign of Emperor Wu, this debate start?

mons

374

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

with such acrimony that even the Imperial presence could not assuage
it. Probably disgusted by this unending and bitter debate, Wu decided
in 573 to rank Confucianism first, Taoism second, and Buddhism third
as religions of the Empire. It is said that his decision was influenced by
the machinations of Wei Yuan-sung, who had been a Buddhist monk
and who had dabbled in the occult sciences, and Chiang Pin, who had
lost the Taoist argument in the debate of 520. The Buddhists resented
this decision, thus infuriating the Emperor who retaliated by proscribing
Buddhism. In his decree he ordered the destruction of Buddhist temples,
images, and scriptures; monks and nuns were to return to the laity; and
the treasures of the monasteries were to be confiscated for distribution
amongst the officials and royal princes. It is noteworthy that the
Buddhists had so successfully exposed the flagrant forgeries perpetrated
by the Taoists that Emperor Wu had to also include Taoism in his decree
of suppression. ‘These persecutions, however, were short-lived. Wu died
in 578, and three years later the Northern Chou dynasty was overthrown
by Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty. He immediately reinstated both
Buddhism and Taoism. The recovery of Buddhism was extraordinarily
rapid, and it soon enjoyed a new peak of popularity.

The T’ang rulers generally preferred Taoism, but did not interfere with
Buddhism, except on two occasions. The first T'ang Emperor, Li-yuan
(or Kao-tzu), was quite antagonistic, but, conscious as he was of the size
and influence of the Buddhist community in China, he did not risk open
hostility. Therefore, instead of trying to suppress Buddhism outright, he
placed various restrictions on its activities. He regarded Confucianism
as essential to China, and under the influence of the Imperial historian,
Fu-i, who was a staunch Confucianist, he issued an edict ordering
magistrates to inquire into the lives of the Buddhist monks and nuns.
But before the decree could be fully implemented, he was murdered,
and there emerged a succession of Tang rulers who were well disposed
towards Buddhism.

Two centuries later the Taoist emperor, Wu-tsung, during his brief
reign of five years attempted to suppress Buddhism. He decreed in 845
that, except for the four temples in each of the capital cities and one
In each of the provinces, all Buddhist temples and monasteries were to
be demolished and monks and nuns unfrocked. More than sixty-five

375

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

thousand temples were desecrated, millions of acres of monastic lan
astic lan

s and nuns forced

nationality, These
figures may be somewhat exaggerated, but they at least indicate bot

the scale of the suppression and the hold Buddhism had acquired in
China. This persecution was certainly the most widespread of its kind in
China, for previous persecutions had been mainly confined to northern
China. It is said that Han Yu (768-824) was the intellectual father of
the persecution of 845. He coined such slogans as: “Restore their people
to humanity! Burn their books! And convert their buildings to human
residences!”*” Whether this persecution was a sudden development or
another episode in the long ideological struggle between Taoism and
Buddhism is a matter of controversy amongst historians. Economic
considerations, such as the desire of the Emperor for the enormous
wealth deposited in the thousands of Buddhist stupas, cannot be
overlooked.

‘This persecution was also short-lived. In 846 Emperor Wu-tsung
died, probably affected by the longevity potions he had been taking,
and his successor, Hsiian-tsang, immediately cancelled the persecution.
The number of temples and monks increased at once. Some scholas,
however, hold the view that after the persecution of 845, Buddhism did
not completely recover, and that the Sangha declined as an intellectual
and spiritual force. a

After the downfall of the T'ang dynasty in 907, China was divided
into a dozen kingdoms and Buddhism again came under the state :
with some thirty thousand monasteries being destroyed. 1e oe
dynasty (960-1127) reversed this policy. At state expense a project E
instituted for the translation and publication of the Buddhist pee s
State assistance came at a most opportune moment, because by a
time contact with India had ceased, The Sung period, howeven - e
witnessed the revival of Confucianist bureaucracy. Because renee
constant infiltration into Sung China from the north by the er
and Juchens, nationalist feelings were unusually high. Taking a e
of the situation, the Confucianists intensified their efforts oe 00
alien creed expelled. Meanwhile, there arose a new sy see “his
of thought, Neoconfucianism, which had absorbed some ?”

confiscated, and more than a quarter of a million monk
to return to lay life. They were even denied Chinese 1

376

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

philosophy and metaphysics, and which was adopted by the Sungs as
their official doctrine.

The Mongols (1279-1368), who dislodged the Sungs, protected
Buddhism because they were themselves Tibetan Buddhists. But under
the Ming dynasty opposition to Buddhism increased and continued into
the Manchu dynasty, except for a respite during the reign of the first two
Manchu emperors who were devout Buddhists. Buddhism was subjected
to suppression by the state and the bureaucracy. Emperors persecuted
Buddhism, philosophers accused it of superstitions, statesmen were
disturbed that some of the most able people in the country were lying
idle in the monasteries, and Confucianist and Taoist literati denounced
it as an alien import. But in the end the emperors made peace with
Buddhism, the monks were allowed to collect alms and raise temples,
and the bureaucracy was compelled to keep Confucianism as its own
aristocratic creed.

The introduction of Buddhism is one of the most important events
in Chinese history, and since its inception it has been a major factor in
Chinese civilization, exercising a great influence on religion, philosophy,
art and literature. The Chinese have freely acknowledged their debt to
India often referring to her as the “Teacher of China,” and Chinese
Buddhists have pictured India as a Western Paradise, Sukhavati., The
advent of Buddhism meant for many Chinese a new way of life, and for
all Chinese, whether they accepted it or not, a means of reassessing their
traditional beliefs. A new conception of the universe developed, and the
entire Chinese approach to life was slowly but surely altered. The change
was so gradual and so universal that few people realized it was happening.
For over a thousand years the Chinese mind was dominated mainly
by Buddhism. The decline of Buddhism in China during the last few
centuries cannot obscure the fact that whilst Buddhism enjoyed prestige
and popularity, it influenced Chinese culture in many ways and left
lasting impressions on Chinese life.** Being a strong and self-confident
civilization, however, China fitted Buddhist ideas into her own texture
of life, and the ascetism of Buddhism, for example, could not suppress
the Chinese love of life and gaiety.”

There has been, however, no scarcity of historians who have been
Unable to appreciate adequately the extent and depth of Buddhist

377

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

influence on Chinese culture. Whilst Western Writers, with notabl
exceptions, have found it difficult to comprehend the variety Fe
complexity of Buddhist doctrines, texts, and traditions, and have been
somewhat disabled by their own predispositions, Confucianist historians
have looked upon Buddhism as an alien intrusion, regarding the Buddhist
ascendancy in Chinese life as indicative of a weakness in the cul
great people, a weakness which they would like to confine to o
Even some rationalist historians are not altogether free

ture ofa
bscurity,
from this
somewhat irrational, although natural, feeling, as is shown by Hu Shih’s
comment that “with the new aids of modern science and technology,
and of the new social and historical sciences, we are confident that we
may yet achieve a rapid liberation from the two thousand years’ cultural
domination by India.”

India never imposed her ideas or culture on any nation by military
force, not even on the small countries in her neighbourhood, and, in
the case of China, it would have been virtually impossible to do so since
China has usually been the more powerful of the two. So the expansion
of Indian culture into China is a monument to human understanding
and cultural co-operation—the outcome of a voluntary quest for learning.
Whilst China almost completely suppressed other foreign religions,
such as Zoroastrianism, Nestorian Christianity, and, to some extent
Manichaeanism, she could not uproot Buddhism. At times Buddhism
was persecuted, but for two thousand years it continued to Indianize
Chinese life even after it had ceased to be a vital force in its homeland
and long after it had lost its place as the dominant religion of Cam
In fact, Indianization became more powerful and effective after it w's
thought that Buddhism had been killed in China.” r

By far the most Significant contribution of Buddhism to China w%*
that it made knowledge available to the lower strata of society EF
introduced a democratic element into learning. Popular E
unheard of, but Buddhism broke open the gates of learning for ale i 5
the powerful and the rich could no longer monopolize knowle -
Indeed, the Buddhist neophytes were usually taken from humbler class i
Hu Shih, who considered that Indian influence had harmed the pa
development of Chinese culture, and who led the modern e a
intellectual renaissance, commented: “Never before had China s¢

378

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

religion so rich in imagery, so beautiful and captivating in ritualism and
so bold in cosmological and metaphysical speculations. Like a poor beggar
suddenly halting before a magnificent storehouse of precious stones of
dazzling brilliancy and splendour, China was overwhelmed, baffled and
overjoyed. She begged and borrowed freely from this munificent giver.
The first borrowings were chiefly from the religious life of India, in
which China’s indebtedness to India can never be fully told.”” Through
its compassionate Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, its promise of salvation
to all alike, its emphasis on piety, meditation, and restraint of passions,
its attractive rituals and festivals, its universality and its tolerance, “the
religious life of the Chinese has been enriched, deepened, broadened”
and made more meaningful in terms of human sympathy, love, and
compassion for all living creatures.””

Certain theistic beliefs—the doctrine of rebirth, the idea of causality,
the belief in reward and retribution, the conception of reality which
permeates every living thing in nature, and the notion of universal
impermanence—had an abiding influence on Chinese life, literature,
and thought. The old simple idea of retribution of good and evil was
replaced by the law of karma (yeh in Chinese) which controls all past,
present, and future existences. The doctrine of karma brought spiritual
consolation to innumerable people. That Chinese philosophy blossomed
afresh after the impact of Buddhism indicates both a response to and
a borrowing from Indian ideas. Buddhism not only offered paradise to
the good, but also threatened the wicked with a multiplicity of hells.
The Chinese, who have always regarded ancestor-worship as important,
found this Buddhist doctrine impressive and convincing. Compassionate
concern for all living beings naturally expressed itself in practical ways,
including the establishment of charitable institutions, such as hospitals,
orphanages, resthouses, and old peoples’ homes. Emotional attachment
to religion encouraged pilgrimages to distant Buddhist establishments,
thus making the Chinese better acquainted with other parts of their
country and its environs.

Broadly, Indian influence on Chinese thought proceeded along two
lines: ideas which were assimilated as part of the indigenous tradition,
and those ideas so radically different that they were distinctly identified
as Indian. Fung Yu-Lan expressed this by pointing out that there is a

379

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

distinction between “Chinese Buddhism” and “Buddhism in Ching

an-tsang, known
sly Indian, Whilst

action with Taoism
Of the two, the latter line of Indian influence was more Successful

For example, the school of subjective idealism of Hsü
in Chinese as the Hsiang tsung (or Wei-shih), is obviou
the Ch’an school developed in China through inter

and,

as Buddhism adapted more and more to China, it was able to make

greater contribution to Chinese culture.
The famous disciple of Kumarajiva, Seng-chao (374-414), first
compared Indian and Chinese thought. He wrote several essays, collected
as the Chao Lun, and found that the systems of Nagarjuna and of Lao-tzu
were not dissimilar. At an early stage in its development, two schools
of Mahayana Buddhism emerged—Madhyamika and Yogacara—and
Nagarjuna was the founder of the Madhyamika school. This school held
the doctrine of the middle view between existence and non-existence,
affirmation and negation, eternity and transience, self and ‘non-self
Although the Buddha in his first sermon at Banaras preached the middle
path, his doctrine differed from that of Madhyamika. Buddha's teaching
had an ethical meaning, preaching neither a life of material pleasure nor
of self-mortification. Nagarjuna’s concept was metaphysical, advocating
neither the theory of reality nor that of unreality. Nagarjuna taught
that nothing is existent Per se; it exists only in relation to other things
everything is sunyata (void) and its individuality is imaginary, samrti-
‘The sunyata is the absolute, corresponding to the Nirguna Brahman
the Upanishads; and there is no difference between samsara, the won
of vision, and nirvana or sunyata. True knowledge is that which ane
the supreme identity beyond all opposites. Seng-chao interpreted x
philosophy of Nagarjuna in Taoist terms and approximated 2 y
doctrines. For instance, in his essay, On the Immutability ps he
observed that Buddhist thought presented the contrast ae
immutable reality (Chuta-tathata) and the temporal Gip i
between permanence and change, and between nirvana and 5 an
These were very similar to the Taoist contrast between nor a an
being, immutability and mutability, and wu wei (non-exi so was
yu-wei (existence), Philosophical controversy in China at He = Sea
centred mostly on zi (noumenon, or substance) and yung (ee
or function). Seng-chao held that ti and yung are not opposed ae

380

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

same. He sought to synthesize, which was his middle path. His synthesis
of the absolute and the relative was no doubt based on the system of
Nagarjuna, but it was expressed in Taoist phraseology. Because of its
Chinese exterior, it was accepted as Chinese, and, in this, Seng-chao
paved the way for Buddhist assimilation into Chinese philosophy.

Hui-Yuan, a disciple of Tao-an and a contemporary of Seng-chao,
laid the foundation for the White Lotus Society of Lushan School, later
known as the Pure Land School. In 402 Hui-Yuan assembled a group of
one hundred and twenty-three of his chosen followers before a statue of
Amitabha where they made a collective vow to be reborn in the Western
Paradise. Thus the cult of Amitabha, the compassionate Buddha who
became a Buddha only on the condition that he could distribute his
accumulated good to others as he chose, was initiated. Those who live
righteously and who piously repeat daily the words namo Amitabha-ya,
or who meditate properly on him, can reach his paradise, the Pure Land
(Sukhavati) in the West. This concept of the splendid Pure Land of
Amitabha, one of the most magnificent in Buddhist imagery, had great
success throughout Eastern Asia and inspired many works of art in both
China and Japan. It was a non-intellectual and extremely simple form
of Buddhism, involving an attitude of complete and enthusiastic bhakti
(devotion) to Amitabha—a new type of Buddhist theism.

Hui-Yuan emphasized meditation and actively promoted dhyana
exercises in South China. He was so enthusiastic that he sent emissaries
to Central Asia to obtain relevant texts and instruction. Well-versed in
Confucianist and Taoist classics, he frequently relied on Taoist terms
to express Buddhist principles. He believed that Buddhist and non-
Buddhist learning could be fused into one doctrine. In his writings
he mixed the metaphysical speculations of Neotaoism with the Prajna
thought of Buddhism, thus making the monastic ideal all the more
attractive to the literati and gentry of South China.

A disciple of Hui-Yuan, Tao-sheng (also a fellow student of Seng-
chao’s under Kumarajiva) was a monk of wide learning and great brillance
who served as a bridge between the Buddhist centres at Lu-Shan and
Chang-an. He preached such revolutionary theories that he was once
Publicly banished from Nanking by the conservative monks. Two of
these theories are important: “good action requires return,” and “sudden

381

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

enlightenment” as opposed to all forms of “gradual attainment.” These
doctrines were not really new but were actually Buddhist with a Chinese
emphasis, demonstrating the Chinese assimilation of Buddhism, Por
example, Tao-sheng’s doctrine of the true self was the logical culmination
of Buddhist thinking on the subject. He taught that every sentient being
possesses the Buddha-nature of universal mind, but is ignorant of it. It
is this avidya (ignorance) which chains him to the wheel of birth and
rebirth. Therefore, it is necessary for him to realize and learn to “see”
the Buddha-nature within him, thus gaining freedom from illusion
and returning to the ultimate. This realization of the Buddha within
through sudden enlightenment also meant being one with the Buddha-
nature of wu or universal mind, and this was the state of nirvana. Many
Buddhists did not approve of Tao-sheng’s doctrine since it implied that
there is in reality no pure land or other world; the world of Buddha is
around us; anyone could attain Buddhahood by sudden enlightenment.
‘The idea of the Universal Mind is an Indian contribution to Chinese
philosophy. The tao of the Taoists is the “mystery of mysteries,” yet it is
not Mind.* After Tao-sheng, Chinese philosophy had not only mind
but also Mind, and his emphasis on meditation as a means of attaining
enlightenment prepared the way for the development of the Ch’an
(Dhyana) school of thought, which influenced not just Buddhism but
all Chinese thought.

Tao-an and Hui-Yuan also emphasized the importance of Dhyana.
Yet it was not until a century after Tao-sheng’s death in 434 that the
Dhyana school of thought was introduced to China by the Indian monk
Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma had evolved a system through which
Buddhahood could be attained only by the conscious identification of
both the absolute and the relative. According to the traditions of the
Dhyana school, this was an esoteric teaching of the Buddha transmitted
from disciple to disciple, independently of written texts, until it reache
the twenty-eighth Indian Patriarch, Bodhidharma, who taught that
the Buddha was not to be found in images and books but in the hearts
of men. ‘The heart of every man is in communion with all time an
space. This heart is the Buddha and the Buddha is the heart. There is "°
Buddha outside the heart. Enlightenment and nirvana are also in the
heart. Outside the reality of the heart, everything is imaginary. TO search

382

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

for something outside the heart is an attempt to seize emptiness. It is
therefore essential to look within and to contemplate the Buddha-nature
of the self. Bodhidharma’s teaching was derived from the Vijnana Vada,
but if Brahman is substituted for the Buddha, it appears remarkably
similar to the Vedanta philosophy.

The Ch’an school presented a challenge to Buddhist scholasticism and
monasticism. Throughout China there were thousands of monasteries
with innumerable monks and nuns and a vast literature of Buddhist
texts. And then the Ch’an philosophy arrived, ignoring all scriptures,
disregarding asceticism and all forms of worship, even the concept of
good and evil, preaching deliverance by knowing one’s own self. Dhyana
Buddhism was the very antithesis of the easy and popular way of gaining
salvation through devotion and worship of Amitabha. It opposed the
worship of images and the authority of the priesthood and emphasized
instead the application of one’s own strength, the sense of inner freedom,
detachment from worldly things, and ceaseless meditation and self-
discipline. Bodhidharma is said to have told the devout Buddhist,
Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty, that all his good works did not
accumulate any merit. To Bodhidharma the scriptures were nothing
more than the finger that points to the moon of enlightenment, no
longer useful once the moon is seen. Because of the difference between
the existing Buddhist scholasticism and Bodhidharma’s Dhyana, it has
been suggested that the Dhyana movement was not really Buddhism at
all, but a Chinese revolt against Buddhist verbalism and scholasticism,
as well as a movement to make Buddhism more Chinese in character
by detaching it from intellectualism. If this be true, then the Chinese
alternative to Indian Buddhism emerged from Buddhism itself. But there
ae e in this assertion, because, whilst the Dhyana school
al aa ee of Mahayana Buddhism, much of gaai is left is
ites r = close to early Indian Buddhism. Chari Buddhism cigs
pees rthodox and popular Mahayana of the therse Sutras just as
a ips Christ and of the Christian mystics diver from the
a semiy of the Churches. 46 Indeed, the Ch an docti

Ta ee in order to discover the essence of pemection in the
bere ? eart and to bring about its mystical cleansing can doses
ack to the practices of the Indian Yogis, both Hindu and

383

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Buddhist. However, it would be wrong to deny the influence of Taoism
in the development of the Ch’an movement in China. The emphasis of
Ch’an writers, teachers, and artists on spontaneity and naturalness is
reminiscent of many passages in Taoist philosophic texts protesting the
artificial restraints of society against the natural development of man, The
Dhyana emphasis on the Buddha-nature of the self may have a parallel
in the Taoist immanence of the Tao. Both Dhyana and Taoism stress
the idea of the wordless doctrine, and Dhyana contemplation differs little
from Taoist ecstasy. It is probable, however, that these common features
illustrate Buddhist influence on Taoism.

Whatever the Taoist content in Ch’an, it certainly was not as
speculative as some other schools of Buddhism were. Ch’an bore an
affinity with Taoism in its philosophical ramifications, but did not
antagonize Confucianist thought. Inevitably, it had great appeal for
the Chinese and became widely popular in China. This sect “completed
the transformation into Chinese thought of the fundamental ideas
brought from India, thus achieving a Buddhist equivalent of the highest
Taoism.”

The concept of Dhyana is sometimes hailed as an internal Chinese
Buddhist movement independent of Indian influence. It is argued
that Bodhidharma was a legendary figure invented later to give the
doctrine weight and authority, and that Dhyana was, psychologically if
not doctrinally, the descendant of the early Chinese Quietism. Whilst
this theory is somewhat far-fetched, some scholars maintain that the
Quietism of China during the fourth and third centuries B.C. was ©
some extent moulded by Indian influence. This does seem possible but
there is no definite proof of it. Whilst it is not altogether true that the
formative period of Chinese Quietism, the fourth century B.C., was @ time
when outside influences on thought were general, Quietism did develop

and expand when such influences were demonstrably beginning t° Re
of importance. Scholars are now agreed that the literature of the z
century B.C. is full of geographical and mythological elements derived
from India.“ Moreover, the Chinese Quietists practiced a form ofse
hypnosis remarkably close to Indian Yoga.
The only flourishing Buddhist school in China today is the Tien-T%
school, founded by Chih-i (or Chi-kai) (538-597). This school Ww?

384

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

eclectic, saw no antagonism between the Hinayana and Mahayana, and

accepted
doctrine that all component things are impermanent, that all dharmas are

without self, and that only nirvana is quiescence, it established a threefold
system of perfect comprehension, chi-kwan: kung, empty or void; chia,
hypothetical or temporariness; and chung, medial or mean. These three
modes of comprehending beings can be likened to the three eyes of
Siva. The “empty” mode destroys the illusion of sensory perception and
constructs supreme knowledge, prajna; the “hypothetical” mode dispenses
with the defilement of the world and establishes salvation from all evils;
and the “medial” mode demolishes hallucination born of ignorance,
avidya, and establishes the enlightened mind. Through these three
truths the Tien-Tai school emphasizes the idea of totality and mutual
identification; the whole and its parts are identical. The entire cosmos and
all the Buddhas may be present in a grain of sand or the point of a hair.
The Tien-Tai identification of phenomena with the absolute is further
illustrated by their doctrine of the Absolute Mind, which embraces the
universe in its entirety.

The Tien-Tai tenets are a brilliant product of Buddhist thought in
China, because they harmonize and synthesize all doctrines, even the
most contradictory, affirm the existence of the Buddha-nature in all
sentient beings and assure universal salvation. Tien-Tai Buddhism is the
most comprehensive system of Mahayana and is held as an authoritative
model for East Asia, particularly for Japan. Its main text, Saddharma-
Pundarika-Sutra (Fa-hua-Ching in Chinese and Hokke-kyo in Japanese),
has provided more themes for Buddhist art in China than any other source.

Whilst Chinese scholars, such as Seng-chao, Hui-Yuan, Tao-sheng,
and Chih-i, adapted Indian thought to Chinese patterns, there were
others, like Hsiian-tsang and his chief disciple Kuei-chi, who founded
schools which seem wholly Indian in character, some of which still
ig eee founded a school called Fa bes a eee
ae own in Japan as Hosso) which taught 2 the a a
ie a Isa projection of Minana, or ae ; T ce
ieee n ee consciousness is real; the purpose of eis to Me anes
of e ofand attachment to the external world, which is a fabrication

own consciousness. This system, explaining all phenomena

all sutras as true words of the Buddha. Following Nagarjuna’s

385

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

psychologically and rationally, evoked a new interest amongst Chinese
intellectuals, but could not wield great proselytizing power, because its
deep and complex metaphysical speculations had little appeal to the
average Chinese. Moreover, the Chinese language was just not flexible
enough to translate and expound the subtle distinctions of terms and
phrases of this school, which in its vast literature developed a most
abstruse system of introspective psychology, analyzing consciousness
into more than five hundred states of mind and their corresponding
faculties and objects.” Although no Chinese sect exclusively follows
this philosophy, it is still studied and has had considerable influence on
East Asian thought.

Amongst other Buddhist schools of China are the Kiu-she, based
on the Abhidhbarma-kosa; the Liu (Vinaya) school, founded by Tao-
Shiuan; and Chen-Yen (the School of the True Word), based on Tantric
Buddhism introduced by Vajrabodhi in the eighth century. Tantrism
or Vajrayana, named after its chief symbol, vajra (thunderbolt), is a
combination of mystical speculation and secret magic rites expressed in a
complex symbolism. These speculations involve the relationship between
empirical reality and true essence, illustrated by a hierarchy of sacred
figures and culminating in the adi (absolute) Buddha. The meditations,
rites, and symbols aid the practical realization of the identity existing
between the devotee and the Buddhanature within him.

Whilst some Buddhist influence can still be seen in practically
every aspect of Chinese cultural life, much is hardly recognizable. The
transformation of Buddhist deities in China is a good illustration of this
point. It is not often realized that the pot-bellied, exuberant Buddha, so
popular as a tourist souvenir and as a model of art practically everywhere,
is a Chinese version of the Indian Maitreya Buddha, who is yet to co™ j
and who is at present in the Tusita Heaven. The Indian Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara, a sort of Buddhist Providence, on his arrival in China
assumed by a curious metamorphosis a feminine guise, becoming the
Goddess of Mercy, Kuan-yin, often represented as a beautiful woman
with tiny feet sometimes bound in the traditional Chinese way- This

goddess is extremely popular in China. Practically every household
contains her image in wood, ivory. oe

l
or porcelain, and she has temp?
all parts of the country. The same Chinese tendency to adapt, assimilat

386

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

and integrate Indian elements is evident in other aspects of cultural life

such as music, painting, sculpture, and architecture.

The most outstanding product of the cultural dialogue between
Buddhism and Chinese thought was Neoconfucianism, unquestionably
one of the greatest philosophies of China. The impact of Buddhism gave
rise to a renaissance of Confucianism under the Sung and Ming dynasties.
Many Chinese scholars of traditional learning recognized the superiority
of Buddhist teachings, especially in metaphysics and methodology.
Hence, they were inspired to rejuvenate Confucianism, grafting onto it
what they regarded as the merits of Buddhism. But the Chinese, deeply
imbued with a sense of this-worldiness and social responsibility, could
not be completely reconciled with the other-wordliness of Buddhism.
Therefore, the interaction between metaphysical Buddhist thought
and Confucianist ethics led to the emergence of a new philosophical
movement, commonly known as Neoconfucianism, during the Sung
period (960-1279). Just as Buddhist interaction with Taoism gave rise
to Ch’an, so with Confucianism it produced Neoconfucianism or Li.
Thus, Buddhism finally succeeded in stirring the Chinese intellect to
respond in a positive way to new stimuli. This Confucianist response to
Buddhism was characteristically Chinese: having failed to silence a critic,
denounce him but act on his criticism. Whilst Confucianism underwent
drastic changes under the Buddhist impact, Buddhism itself, except in
minor concepts, absorbed little of Confucianism.”

Neoconfucianism was a deliberate attempt to show that Confucianism
could offer everything that Buddhism offered. Neoconfucianists
found fault with Buddhist doctrines but endeavoured to crystallize
their own philosophical thinking. In doing so, they had to borrow a
good deal without specifically acknowledging their debt. Often they
ee their interpretations to prove the continuity and purity
me Su interpretation of Confucianism, since the new movement

partly a nationalist reaction against Buddhism. But in fact,
Neoconfucianism contains less Confucianism and more Buddhism, and
to call it Neoconfuciani Xe S eaking a misnomer.
onfucianism, therefore, is strictly speaking
Rae Chinese scholar, Chou Hsiang-kuang, calls it Sung
sm or Li Hsueh of the Sung dynasty.”
“oconfucianism explicitly undertook to match the Buddhist

387

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

cosmology, explain the world metaphysically, and show how m

3 % s S an could
attain happiness within the ordinary pursuits of life. It w

as impossible
to produce a system of cosmology and metaphysics from the Analects of
Confucius, who was much too practical. Many Neoconfucianists appealed
to Mencius, who, although a Confucianist, had diverged considerably
from the master’s practicality and adopted an almost mystical attitude
similar to that of a Taoist. Whatever could not be explained was
attributed to the esoteric teaching of Confucius, which was imparted
not to the masses but to the select few. Four books came to be regarded
as the main scriptures of Neoconfucianism during the Sung period: the
Analects, the Book of Mencius, the Great Learning, and the Doctrine of the
Mean. The last was held to contain the esoteric teaching of Confucius.
It is significant that whilst some Confucianist scholars continued to
deprecate Buddhism as a foreign religion, Confucianist temples from
the eighth to the sixteenth centuries contained images of Confucius, his
disciples and other notables, like the images in Buddhist temples.
That Neoconfucianists felt the need to discover scientific thought to
match the notions of positive sciences as applied to philosophy shows
that Indian concepts, such as the dualism of Samkhya and the atomism of
Vaisesika, were too popular and well known to be liked by the revivalists.
Compelled thus to offer a cosmology that could compete with that
of the Buddhists, “the Neo-Confucians took over bodily some of the
ideas of their rivals. Thus we find them echoing the Buddhist idea that
the Universe is ceaselessly destroyed and recreated. This is interpreted
in Chinese terms, however, as a function of the operation of the Yin
(regression) and Yang (progression), the five forces, mystic numerology
and the diagrams which are the basis of the Book of Changes.” Te
Confucianists claimed that this work was written by Confucius, but
in fact it is an ancient fortune-teller’s manual. However, for many
Neoconfucianists it virtually became a bible for their cosmology: ite
so alien to the whole of early Confucianism that it is impossible not t0
believe that its metaphysical speculations were derived from Taoism 2
Buddhism over a period of time. 7
But each rival school of the many varieties of Neoconfucianis™
claimed Confucianist purity for itself and accused the others of having
been influenced by Taoism and Buddhism. Later, many Chinese scholars:

388

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

s Ku Yen-Wu (or Ku Ting-Lin, 1613-1682), also attacked

such a Me :
inism for its debt to Buddhism.

Neoconfucié
The Neoconfucianist movement was initiated by Chou Tun-i

(1017-1073), who introduced into Confucianism the doctrine of the
Supreme Ultimate, or first principle, which he called by the ancient name,
jai-chi (meaning literally “supreme-limit”) and which was conceived
of as the primordial unity like the ancient Tao. However, in common
with the Neotaoists of his time, Chou Tun-i envisaged this primordial
essence as purely cosmogonic and not metaphysical. In modern terms,
it resembled the infinitely rarefied and diffused matter of nebulae, a dust
which consolidates itself into things by the laws of nature, and which
produces the universe through the process of evolution. He criticized the
Buddhist doctrine of sunyata, which maintained that the phenomenal
world was illusionary.

Similar ideas were developed by other scholars, such as Shao Yung
(1011-1077); the two brothers, Cheng Hao (1032-1085) and Cheng
Yi (1033-1107); Chang Tsai, their uncle; and Chu Hsi (1130-1200).
Of these exponents of Neoconfucianism, Chang Tsai was probably the
one most responsible for the introduction of acceptable elements from
Buddhism. Chu Hesi, hailed by Needham as “the supreme synthetic mind
in all Chinese history,” was born in Fukien and is alleged to have once
been a Buddhist monk. About 1154 he renounced Buddhism and returned
to official Confucianism. His philosophical writings so completely
dominated those of his predecessors, and wielded such an extensive
influence, that his system is generally distinguished as Chuism. Like
Confucius he was “a transmitter rather than an originator” of thought.
His main object was to further the new approach to the Confucianist
classics as taught by the Cheng brothers.* Perhaps his central concept is
that the whole universe is composed of two co-eternal principles which
are i and chi—the norm or reason, and matter or energy- These two
= inseparable, yet possess distinctive characters. They existed before
eee and li set chi in motion which produced the world. In
ee ae : e relation between the norm and the world, the pu
ee : enomenon, Chu Hsi and the Nevconticat’ p a =
principle a the Buddhist concept of nirvana and samsara. ut the

s not the same as the concept of a universal consciousness, an

389

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

affable spirituality, the soul of souls and of worlds of Indian pantheism
Li action is necessary inevitable and unconscious, which excludes any he
of spirituality. All things and all human relationships consist of jj and chi,
which, as one, are infinite, eternal, immutable, unalterable, homogenous,
unconscious, and unintelligent. Li is pure, vast, without form, and unable
to create. Chi is alone responsible for existent things and for change. In
this Chu Hsi was, no doubt, influenced by the Indian idea that only the
permanent and unchanging is good in the highest sense.

Man’s nature is his li, which is part of the Supreme Ultimate. It is only
human desire that obscures his true nature, and if he could but realize this
fact he would be enlightened. This is remarkably similar to the doctrine
of the Dhyana school of Buddhism, and much of this philosophy is so
alien to early Chinese thought that “it would be easy to conclude the
Neo-Confucians have been converted to Buddhism in everything but
name.”*° Chu Hsi, in common with Shao Yung (1011-1077), believed
that at the end of an epoch lasting 129,600 years the existing world system
would come to an end and be replaced by another. This concept was alien
to the Chinese and must have been derived from the well-known Indian
ideas of aeons and recurring world systems.

Chu Hsi’s greatest rival was Lu Hsiang-Shan (or Lu Chiu-Yuan,
1139-1193), the founder of the rival school of Sung Rationalism. He
stressed meditation and intuition, and wielded much influence over
Chinese thinkers of the day, especially in eastern China. Whilst his
emphasis resembles that of Dhyana Buddhism, it also has roots in ancient
Chinese thought, especially that of Mencius. Chu Hsi’s system, with
its vagaries and universality, is marked by an element of caution and
consideration, whilst Lu Hsiang-Shan’s is characterized by sharpnes
and penetration. Lu Hsiang-Shan did not share Chu-Hsi’s dualistic
philosophy, but propounded a monistic doctrine stating that everything

that exists is li. Nothing is finite; man, heaven, earth, and all things Oy
in the infinite. Man is personally concerned in every affair of the univers?
and the universe is concerned in all man’s personal affairs. Early Chines?
thought was closer to Lu Hsiang-Shan’s than to Chu Hsi’s. Lu said, “the

a : ‘ e
Universe is my mind, and my mind is the Universe,” in somewhat a

Sacra 3 : » But the
same way as Mencius said, “all things are complete within me.” But

type of monism which Lu Hsiang-Shan preached is also akin to Dhyan?
390

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Buddhism, and for this reason Chu Hsi’s disciples criticized Lu. Whilst
Chu Hsi taught that man’s nature is pure and unchanging, and that mind
is composed of li and chi, Lu regarded nature, mind, and feeling as the
same thing seen from different aspects, and believed that the process of
moral cultivation consisted of looking for one’s own “lost mind,” one’s
true nature which was originally good, but had been led astray through
desire. Lu advocated practical methods for regaining the lost mind. For
man there is nothing prior to knowing himself. For attaining knowledge
ofone’s own self or lost mind, he suggested meditation, much in the same
manner as the Dhyana Buddhists did. Practiced assiduously, meditation
would lead to the sudden realization of the oneness of one’s own mind
with the totality of all things. This concept of lost mind resembles
the upanishadic teaching, “thou art that,” and the theory of sudden
enlightenment of Dhyana Buddhism.

The Chu Hsi school was closer to the whole rationale of Confucianism,
whilst the Lu School was more akin to Indian Buddhism. The
Neoconfucianists of the Chu Hsi School began by examining the external
world, and this determined their conception of li as heaven or nature.
Because the exponents of the Lu School endeavoured to permeate
Confucianism with Buddhist thought they began by looking inward upon
themselves, but defined their theory of li as the mind in an attempt to
modify Buddhism with Confucianist teaching. Irrespective of the validity
of this distinction, there is no doubt that the Neoconfucianist doctrine
of mind and the advocacy of concentration of mind were influenced by
Buddhism. The controversy raging within Buddhist society concerning
sudden and gradual enlightenment is reflected “in the discussions of
the Neo-Confucianists, with Chu Hsi representing the gradual rational
‘pproach and Lu Hsiang-Shan the intuitive instantaneous approach.”
Even in the motto of the Sung political reformer, Fan Chung-Yen, “to
he first in worrying about the world’s troubles and last in the enjoyment
of its pleasures,” one can detect overtones of the Bodhisattva ideal
of seeking the salvation of others before passing to one’s own reward as
a Buddha.57 :
ae » outstanding Neoconfucianist philosopher ss the Ming
2 ee a statesman of high calibre and integrity, Wang ang-ming

g Shou-Jen, 1472-1529) echoed the doctrine of Lu Hsiang-

391

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Shan. Mind covers the whole range of existence and nothing Exists
independent of and apart from it. An individual may understand the
fundamental principles of life and of things by understanding his own
mind and by developing his own nature. Each individual has the solution
of the problems of the universe within himself.

In his early days Wang Yang-ming was an ardent follower of Chu Hsi,
but upon further investigation and reflection he moved to Lu Hsiang-
Shan’s concept of Universal Mind. In the exposition of this doctrine,
Wang's writings are more comprehensive than those of Lu. Although
his doctrine is hardly different in essence from that of his predecessor,
he organized it more systematically and expressed it more precisely and
convincingly. He was tolerant of both Buddhism and Taoism. His system
was denounced by his opponents as being Buddhism in disguise and was
criticized as heretical, and the Ming Emperor forbade its dissemination
after the death of the philosopher. But his influence on later Chinese
thought was extensive. Whilst Wang Yang-ming did not consciously
attempt to reconcile Buddhist and Confucianist ideas, his stress on
individual intuition, innate knowledge of the good, and the inseparability
of knowledge and practice led to a “rejection of all formal and traditional
standards of Confucian morality, a positive contempt for book learning as
an intellectual discipline, and a conscious desire to arrive at a syncretism
of Buddhism and Taoism with Confucianism.”®®

Buddhism had become such an integral part of Chinese thinking thatit
was impossible for the exponents of Sung Rationalism to discount it. “They
used Confucianist terms to interpret Buddhist concepts, or interpreted
Confucianist concepts in the light of Buddhist knowledge. Without
understanding the Buddhist ideas of Sung China, the Neoconfucianist
system cannot be properly comprehended. Yet, several doctrines central
to Buddhism, such as reincarnation and the concept of heavens and hells
have no place in Neoconfucianism. The Neoconfucianist emphasis 0n t°
problems of society is in marked contrast to the Buddhist indifference? ie

the fate of society. Buddhist asceticism and pessimism are Very diff erent
from Neoconfucianist Optimism. Unlike Buddhism, Neoconfucianis™
neither counsels withdrawal from life nor regards it as evil À
Taoism also leaned heavily on Buddhism, and, in fact, was far mog 3
affected by Buddhist ideas. The Taoists had no notion of their sys” p

392

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

a religion until they appropriated the idea from the Buddhists. Having
done so, they decided to imitate the Buddhist example. They borrowed
their views on cosmology from Buddhism, as well as their pantheon,
their literature, and their doctrines: “Instead of Taoism swallowing up
Buddhism, as was feared at the end of the Han Dynasty, the Taoists
were themselves overwhelmed by the Buddhists. 2 Taoism borrowed the

cept of heavens and hells from Indian Buddhism, and the indefinable

5

con
Tao is very close to the indeterminate “thusness” of Buddhism. Taoist
and Buddhist ethics teach returning good for evil, in marked contrast
to the Confucianist doctrine of reciprocity. Chuang-Tzu’s emphasis
on self-identification with the universe as a means of entering a state
of pure experience and higher happiness, having discarded intellectual
knowledge, reveals Indian influence. He was presumably acquainted
with Yoga techniques, and several of his passages describing a state of
self-induced trance are reminiscent of dhyana.

Whatever the extent and nature of Buddhist influence on Taoism,
there is no doubt that Taoism and Buddhism were commonly associated
in the Chinese mind. Buddhists were often very tolerant of Taoists and
sometimes even included Taoist deities in their temples. Taoism also
copied Buddhism in establishing temples and an order of monks. The
Taoist Trinity created by deifying Lao-tzu and associating him with
Panku and Yu Huang Shangti is on the pattern of the Three Jewels
of Buddhism. In an interesting work called Mou-tzu, after its author,
Buddhism is in fart regarded as simply an older and more elaborate
version of Taoism.

Buddhist elements are found in Chinese festivals, local beliefs and
Practices. Certain features of the clan organizations, notably the idea
and function of charitable estates for the benefit of the entire clan, are
of Buddhist origin.*! Buddhist symbolism is seen in the ideologies and
oe 9 x secret societies, which have been so important in oe
Ch: story. The concept of karma is to be found in all types o

inese literature from poetry to popular tales.

Suppinse ALSO MADE contributions from areas of Indian culture other
an the philosophic—such as art, astronomy, mathematics, medicine,
and fables. The great literary activity of the Buddhist scholars naturally

393

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

had a permanent influence on Chinese literature, one of the oldest
and richest in the world. Whilst the antiquity of Chinese literature js
apparent, its literary forms were slow in evolving. In fact, they did not
begin to articulate and crystallize until after the impact of the Buddhist
translations, literary themes, and techniques. There was no epic poetry
or short story form until the T’ang period; no recorded dramas until the
Mongol period; and no development of the novel until the Ming period.
In a recent study a Chinese scholar, Lai Ming, says that a significant
feature in the development of Chinese literature has been “the immense
influence of Buddhist literature on the development of every sphere of
Chinese literature since the Eastern Chin period (317 a.p.). We cannot
say that without this influence Chinese literature would have remained
static and only poetry and prose been its principal literary forms, but we
can safely say that it certainly would have been different from what it
is today.”

‘The earliest works of Chinese literature are the Confucianist classics."
The ancient Chinese, such as the Ch’an masters, wrote their Recorded
Sayings without much attention to literary organization and clarity
of presentation. With the advent of the Buddhist classics, Chinese
writing became more systematized, lucid, and logical. Indian hetuvidya,
methodology, and Buddhist translations in both prose and verse led to
a new era in literature.

Buddhist influence on Chinese literature, as on other aspects of
cultural life, was not a deliberately initiated and directed process but
a natural growth dictated by the needs of religious propaganda. The
sutras were written in combined prose and rhymed verse, a literary form
unknown in China at the time. It was possible to communicate the
meaning, but the tonal harmony and the beauty of the verses could not
be translated. The Chinese language when pronounced in the Sanskrit
polyphonic manner was likely to sound hurried and abrupt, and to chant
the Sanskrit verses in monophthongal Chinese prolonged the verses >
much the rhymes were lost. Hence, to make the Chinese sutras pleasan
to listen to, the Chinese language had to be modified to accommodat
Sanskrit sounds, and greater attention paid to fan-chieh, the Chines
method of phonetic spelling, by joining the initial or consonant soun =
a word to the end or vowel sound of another word. Consequently, 17 487,

394

|
f
f
i
Í

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Yung Ming, Prince of Ching Ling, convened a conference of Buddhist
monks at his capital to differentiate between, and define the tones of, the
Chinese language for reading Buddhist sutras and for chanting the verses.
Their deliberations improved and more accurately defined the sound of
monophthongal Chinese, and a new theory, called the Theory of Four
Tones, was established: ping or “soft” tone; and three “hard” tones, shang
or acute tone, chu or grave tone, and ju or abrupt tone.

The emergence of the Theory of Four Tones led to the rise of a new
prosody. Instead of using a single rhyme for a poem, poets started to
write poems which changed rhymes every two, four, or eight lines and
greater attention was given to the balance of tonal values: “The ‘new style’
poetry of the Tang Dynasty, ¢se of the Sung Dynasty and chu of the Yuan
Dynasty, all followed basically the same theory which had grown out of
the necessity to adapt the Chinese language to translating Buddhist sutras
and propagating Buddhism.” A new form of prose, pien-ti-wen, also
developed because of the new emphasis on tonal value. The new prose
style introduced pleasing tones and flowery phrases, which, in turn,
brought about a greater consciousness of the subtle distinctions between
works of philosophy and history and those literature.

The introduction into China of highly imaginative literature, such as
the Mahayana sutras and the Indian epics, infused into Chinese literature
the quality of imagination which had been hitherto lacking. Taoist
literature, such as the book Chuang-tzu, did perhaps show some quality
of imaginative power, but on the whole Chinese literature, especially
Confucianist, was narrow, formal, restricted, and unimaginative. It
recorded daily routine and historical events but seldom told interesting
tales. The Biography of Emperor Mu, which comprises the barest possible
outlines of stories, can be cited as an example of Chinese writing of the
Pre-Buddhist period. By contrasting this work with Wu Cheng-en’s
Hsi Yu Chi, the great romantic novel written after Buddhist influence
had permeated Chinese literature, the enormous contribution of Indian
Maginative literature to creative writing in China is apparent.

The literary masterpiece of the Buddhist poet, Asvaghosa: Buddha-
ae translated into Chinese by Dharmaraksa, influenced not

inese Buddhism but Chinese literature as well. The long Chinese
Poems, 4 Heroine of the Molan and the Peacock Flying towards the South-

395

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

east, reflect the style of Buddhist literature. The novels and dramas of the
Yuan and Ming dynasties were influenced by Buddhism either dire
or indirectly. China has no epic poetry; but what is the most surpri
feature of the history of Chinese literature is the conspicuous

ctly
sing
absence of
fiction until almost the end of the eighth century. The Chinese sense of

realism was so intense that there was hardly any mythology in ancient
China, and they have produced few fairy tales of their own. Most of their
finest fairy tales were originally brought to China by Indian monks in
the first millennium. The Buddhists used them to make their sermons
more agreeable and lucid. The tales eventually spread throughout the
country, assuming a Chinese appearance conformable to their new
environment. For example the stories of Chinese plays such as 4 Play
of Thunder-Peak, A Dream of a Butterfly, and A Record of Southern Trees
were of Buddhist origin.

Many ghost stories were written during the Three Kingdoms and Chin
periods (220-419), a time when China was passing through a succession
of wars and natural disasters, and even the ultrarealistic Chinese were
receptive to some kind of emotional escape. Buddhist influence on the
rise of story-telling can be seen in the collections of tales published of the
period of the Northern-Southern dynasties for example, Yuan Hun Chi
(Accounts of Avenging Spirits) by Yen Chihtui, and Ming Hsiang Chi
(Records of Mysterious Manifestations) by Wang Yen. But the fables
which became so popular in western Asia, Europe, and elsewhere did not
find acceptance in China. The Chinese did not much care for animals
who assumed human characteristics.

‘The stories found in the Buddhist sutras were changed into Chinese
scenes and characters and passed off, possibly unconsciously, as Chinese
stories. For example, the story, “A Scholar of Yang Hsien,” included é
the Sequel to Tales of Chi-Hsich, is a replica of a Buddhist story foun
in the Samyuktavadana Sutra, which was rendered into Chinese in t®°
‘Three Kingdoms period by Kang Seng-hui. Buddhist ideas influenced
many short story writers: for example, Lee Kung-tso’s The Governor
Nan-ko and Shen Chi-chi’s Records of a Pillow, both of which dwell upo”
the transience of life and the futility of worldly possessions and fame-
An outstanding example of this is the well-known Chinese novel As
Yu Chi (Records of a Trip to the West, known in its English adaptation

396

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

by Arthur Waley as Monkey) by Wu Chengen (1505-1580), which is a
modified version of an earlier story The Story of Hstian-tsang’s Search for
Buddhist Sutras, which in its turn was based on the life of Hsüan-tsang.
It has seventeen chapters in three volumes, and is the first Chinese novel
to be divided into chapters, each of which has a couplet for the title.
More important, however, is the fact that it was the first and remains
one of the very few novels of romantic fantasy. The story has a Buddhist
theme, is based on the actual journey of Hsüan-tsang, and was written
by someone who, if not a Buddhist monk, was familiar with Buddhist
literature. On his journey, Hsüan-tsang takes a monkey who looks
like a scholar, has magical powers, writes poems, and has a striking
similarity to Hanuman, the monkey god of the Indian epic Ramayana.
This can hardly have been a coincidence. This monkey so fascinated the
Chinese that this story continued to be popular throughout the Sung,
Mongol, and Ming dynasties. The popular novel, Plum of the Golden
Bottle, written in the Sung period and narrating the story of a young man
learning the teachings of the Buddha, and Feng-Shen-Chuan (Annals
of the Investiture of Deities) of the Ming period, are other examples
of Buddhist influence on the Chinese novel. Still other stories are pure
adaptations of Indian legends. Amongst these are The Story of Hsiao
Tung-hsien which was based on an Indian legend mentioned by Hstian-
tsang in his Hsi Yu Chi.

A Chinese style of essay-writing called sam wen or pien wen, consisting
of short prose which combines straight narration, rhymed verses,
descriptive prose, and allegories, is of Buddhist origin. To propagate
their faith Buddhist monks used to explain the often obscure meaning
of Buddhist sutras by telling anecdotes in order to arouse and hold the
PASS: of the people. This method of expounding the sutras in story-
telling form proved very effective and popular, and gradually gave rise
to net wen stye of writing.‘

Sr lst there were numerous references to pien wen in standard ae
ie T written in this style was first discovered in 1907 amongst e
i ee scrolls, and drawings found by Sir Aurel Stein in the re
for a o. rnae These included some forty stories. Sone ie these,
ep ee es Shuntse Chih Hsiao Pien Wan (The Most Filial s untse),
o Chih Pien Wen (The Story of Lieh Kuo), Ming Fei Pien (or

397

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Ming Fei), Chiu Hu Pien Wen (or Chiu Hu), have nothing to do with
Buddhism in subject matter but are historical or legendary Stories retold
in the pien wen literary form.

Pien wen occupies an important place in the evolution of Chinese
literature, because it is the forerunner of hua pen, the texts of the story-
tellers of the Sung dynasty. It is through hua pen that Buddhist literature
contributed most to the development of Chinese novels, for Chinese
novels are a literary form evolved and adapted almost indiscriminately
from hua pen.

Pien wen also indirectly influenced Chinese drama although the
influence is less obvious, because not enough manuscripts have survived to
allow a full examination. Since pien wen is the first known Chinese literary
form to contain both prose and rhymed verse, it must have contributed
to the emergence of chu kung tiao, an art form of the Sung and Chin
dynasties. Chu kung tiao consists of sets of lyrics composed according to
musical scores in various keys, linking descriptive passages and dialogues.
It was from this that Northern drama or zsa chu evolved.

Chinese drama assimilated Indian features in three stages. First, the
story, characters, and technique were all borrowed from India; later,
Indian technique gave way to Chinese; and finally, the story was modified
and the characters became Chinese also. There are many dimensions to
Chinese drama, and it is not easy to place them accurately in history.
However, the twelfth century provides the first-known record of the
performance of a play, a Buddhist miracle-play called Mu-lien Rescues his
Mother based on an episode in the Indian epic Mahabharata. The subject
matter of the Buddhist adaptation of the story, in which Maudgalyayana
(Mu-lien in Chinese) rescues his mother from hell, occurs in 4 Tun-
huang pien wen. Significantly, the play was first performed at He
Northern Sung capital by professionals before a religious festival.

Phrases and words coined by Buddhist scholars enriched the Chinese
vocabulary by more than thirty-five thousand words. As the assimilation
was spread over a long period of time, the Chinese accepted these wor 3
as a matter of course without even suspecting their foreign origin. ik :
today words of Buddhist origin are widely used in China from the folklo
of peasants to the formal language ofthe intelli gentsia. For example, P’

A 5 0
for glass in the names of many precious and semi-precious stones i

398

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

Sanskrit origin. Cha-na, an instant, from shana; t'a, pagoda, from stupa;
mo-li, jasmine, from mallika, and terms for many trees and plants are
amongst the many thousands of Chinese words of Indian origin.

These words were coined principally in two ways. One method
combined single Chinese words to evolve a new meaning, similar to the
method followed by Sanskrit. An example of such a word is Chin Ju. Chin
means real, ju means likely, and together they mean d/utatathata, implying
the absolute, ultimate source and character of all phenomena. The word
is fundamental to Mahayana Buddhism. The other method adopted a
Sanskrit word with its original sound: for example mi pan, which is the
rendering of nirvana; cha-na of ksana; she-men of sramana. The legacy of
transliterative devices, first developed to render the untranslatable words
and concepts of Indian origin, still survives in China. These devices are
now used to translate Western ideas and concepts. Indian grammar also
undoubtedly stimulated Chinese philological study.

Chinese script consists of numerous symbols, which in their earliest
stage were chiefly pictographic and ideographic. This was awkward to
work with so Buddhist scholars set out to devise an alphabetical system.
‘The first system was called Hsi Yu Hu Shu (Foreign Writing of the
Western Countries), or Po La Men Shu (Brahmanical Writing). Later,
during the latter half of the T’ang dynasty, the Indian Buddhists helped
Chinese scholars form a system of thirty ¢zu-mu, phonetic symbols
divided on the model of Sanskrit into gutturals, glottals, linguals, dentals,
and labials. Shen-kung, a Buddhist monk, is the reputed author of the
system, and the dictionary, Yu Pien (Discrimination of Language), was
one of the first extensive works in which it was used. Chinese phonetic
spelling, the Jan chieh system of employing two characters to indicate
the pronunciation of the third character, was no doubt, the result of
Chinese knowledge of the Sanskrit alphabet. Previous to the fan ch’ieh
‘ystem the Chinese had endeavoured to indicate the pronunciation of a
ee by the use of homonyms, but the fan ch’ieh system combines

“Initial sound of the first character with the final sound of the second
to indicate the pronunciation.

Inpian ART ALSO reached China, mainly through Central Asia, although
“ome works of Buddhist art came by sea. Monks and their retinues, and

399

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

traders brought Buddha statues, models of temples, and other objects of
art to China. Chinese pilgrims also enthusiastically collected works of art
on their travels. Fa-hsien made drawings of images whilst at Tamralipiti:
Hsiian-tsang returned with several golden and sandalwood figures of the
Buddha; and Hui-lun with a model of the Nalanda Mahavihara, Wang
Huan-ts’e, who went to India several times, collected many drawings of
Buddhist images, including a copy of the Buddha image at Bodhgaya; this
was deposited at the Imperial palace and served as a model of the image
in Ko-ngai-see temple. The most famous icon of East Asian Buddhism
known as the “Udayana” image was reported to have been brought by
the first Indian missionaries in 67, although there are various legends
associated with this image and many scholars believe it was brought
by Kumarajiva. However, this influx of Indian art was incidental and
intermittent, and was destined to be absorbed by Chinese art, which had
a strong tradition of its own. This combination resulted in a Buddhist
art of exceptional beauty.

There were three main centres of Buddhist art in China-Tun-huang,
Yun-kang in the north of Shansi, and Lung-men near Loyang. Tun-
huang is located on the northwestern frontier of China near an oasis
known as Yumen or the Jade Gate, where the northern and southern
routes from Central Asia converged. For travellers to China it marked
the last stage of an arduous journey, and it became a thriving centre for
Buddhist activities. During the fourth century, Tun-huang provided
refuge to numerous monks escaping from the upheavals prevalent in
the rest of northern China. These monks contributed to Tun-huang®
importance as a centre of Buddhist learning. For accommodation they
dug cave monasteries in the hillsides. The earliest dated cave temple
was built by a monk, Lo-tsun, in 366, although Tun-huang had been @
flourishing colony of monks long before this date. In the most e
of these caves there is a wall painting which was executed in 344. Sever
monks, such as Dharmaraksa, had travelled from there to China. 1°
site is called Ch'ien-fo-tung, “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas,” bec"
there were supposedly more than a thousand caves in 698. So fat, nae
five hundred caves have been discovered. These caves Were eee
throughout with murals, and were frequently furnished with numero"
Buddha statues and sculptured scenes from the Jatakas.

400

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

The murals have been well preserved in the dry climate. Besides wall
paintings and paintings on silk and paper, a large number of ancient
manuscripts and art relics remained hidden in perfectly good condition
in a walled-up rock temple library for about nine hundred years. Many
of the scrolls and drawings belong to the T’ang period, and many of the
manuscripts are in Sanskrit. These paintings are an invaluable record
of the history of Chinese art, not only because they cover a period of
a thousand years to the end of the thirteenth century, but also because
only a few other T’ang paintings have survived. Whilst the numerous
cave sanctuaries of Central Asia have preserved an incalculably rich art
treasure, the implications and interpretations of which embrace most of
the known ancient world, the history of Chinese art would have remained
far more obscure without the yield of Tun-huang.

Tun-huang art mainly follows Chinese and the Serindian (Central
Asian Indian) traditions. There is some evidence of Turkish and Iranian
influences in the later paintings. The grottos were begun in the Northern
and Western Wei periods, but their art attained its peak form later.
Mural painting in cave temples, or in sanctuaries dug in cliff walls is
most likely due to Indian influence, although tombs have painted walls
at least as far back as the Han dynasty. These cave paintings portray the
entire system of Indian mudras (expressive gestures of the hand) and
motifs of Indo-Buddhist Art: for example the Bodhi tree, the nimbus,
and the yaksas guarding the temple. Later on, as might be expected,
Chinese traditions became increasingly predominant, and the Tun-huang
paintings represent an increasing synthesis of Indian and Chinese ideas.
On some silk paintings are found pictures of Vaisravana, the /okapa/a or
guardian king of the North in Indian mythology, featured as a formidable
Tang warrior with dazzling armour and adornments in golds, reds, blues,
and greens. He is supposed to be the protector of the Buddha, of his
Sanctuary, and of his doctrine. The Tun-huang banners exhibit Buddhist
doctrines in the process of evolution. The cult of Maitreya is depicted
alongside the heavens of Avalokitesvara, the Buddhist Providence. They
also show the transformation of the Indian Avalokitesvara into the
Chinese Kuan-yin, the Goddess of Mercy. Thus, Tun-huang is “not
only the junction where one passes from the art of the Tarim Basin, still
Petmeated with Indian influence, to a purely Chinese art; italso remains

401

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

a unique testimony, after the conquest of China by Buddhism, to the
counter-annexation of Buddhism by China.”

In China proper the earliest traceable influence of Indian art is found
in the Yun-kang caves. So far, twenty-eight major caves, revealing art
of different periods, have been discovered. ‘These caves were constructed
from about 453 onwards to commemorate the reversal of the policy of
Buddhist persecution initiated in 446 by the Toba Wei Emperor, Tai
Wu. The work continued throughout the Wei period and for several
centuries thereafter. The leading role in the resumption of work on these
caves in 453 was played by the Buddhist monk, Tan Yao, who came
from Central Asia, and whose doctrine was based on the Lotus of the
True Law and on the teachings of the Indian arhat Vimalakirti. Later,
the Wei Emperor, Wen-hsien himself directed the work on the caves at
Yun-kang between 460 and 465, including the enormous Buddha seated
in Indian fashion in cave Number 20.

The conversion of the Toba Wei rulers to Buddhism had an enormous
influence on the development of Chinese art. The Wei sculpture includes
some of the finest religious art of all time. Similar to the way Romanesque
and Gothic artists adapted the traditions of Graeco-Roman plastic art
to purely spiritual ends, the sculptors of the Wei period drew-upon the
Gandhara technique of drapery and the Apollo-like features of its statues
to more effectively express the pure spirituality of Buddhism.” However,
in recent years the art of Yun-kang has come to be regarded as somewhat
of an improvement on Gandhara art in purity of line and elegance. —

Although colossal images of the Buddha, like those at Bamiyan 1"
Afghanistan, and smaller statues in cliff niches of the Buddha and the
Bodhisattvas were predominant, some caves (Nos. 7, 8, and 10) also
contain many images of Hindu deities, such as Siva on Nandi a

_ Vishnu on Garuda. Two Japanese scholars, Mizuno and Nagahira, 1
their fifteen-volume work on the art of these caves, find not so much ©
the mature Gupta style, as seen in the seated Sarnath image, ® of the
Mathura style of the earlier Gupta period. If these images had come
from India and were considered holy, as is suggested by Omura who, in
his History of Chinese Sculpture, drew upon Chinese literary references

it would significantly underline the depth of Chinese acceptance °
Indian thought.

402

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

The art in the caves at Lung-men is a continuation of that at Yun-
kang, and carries mysticism and stylization even further. In 494 the Wei
kings moved their capital from Peng-Cheng to Loyang, which led to
the construction of Buddhist rock shrines near the new capital in 508.
Beginning in the reign of Emperor Hsuan-wu, the chiselling of the caves
continued through the rest of the dynasty. Emperors, officials, monks,
and laymen cooperated in cutting the hard rocks and filling niches with
images of the Buddha. The number of Buddha statues according to one
count, totals 142,289.

The most important of the Lung-men caves are the Ku-yang-tung
and Pin-yang-tung. The Buddha and Maitreya were the chief deities
portrayed in the Ku-yang-tung. The Pin-yang-tung cave was patronized
by the ruling house and is the more imposing. Here, figures of the
emperors and empresses can be seen paying their respects to the Buddha.
The sculpture in the Pin-yang-tung is based on two widely known Jatakas,
the Sudassanajataka and Mahasattvajataka.

The sculptures produced during the Pei-Ch’i period (550-577) are
of considerable importance. Carved in white sandstone in the caves
on the cliffs of Tieh-lung-shan, they bear marks of Gupta art, as do
the limestone sculptures of Hsiang-tang-shan on the border of Hopei
and Honan, which were still being produced during the T'ang period.
In the cave temples of Tieh-lung-shan, statues of Bodhisattvas have
been discovered, which are apparently contemporary with the T'ang
dynasty, and which are direct imitations of Indian Gupta art. They have
a softness of modelling, a rounded charm, and a blending of forms which
are strikingly un-Chinese but do represent the Indian sense of beauty
with its inherent tropical sensuousness.” Oswald Siren has pointed out
that certain Buddha figures at T’ieh-lung-shan were obviously inspired
by models from Mathura and Sarnath. One of the Bodhisattvas seated
on a lotus is cast in a graceful and recognizably Indian posture and
costume. Other Bodhisattvas, for example in cave Number 17, are seated
ee a posture which brings out the beauty U E
ie me with the upper part of the body bare aoe SS ee ae
Scan in a these appear to have been direc y eae r E
a BS onsidering how foreign the nude isto anr >

resting that Indian aesthetics for a brief period wholly reshaped

403

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Chinese taste.” In the cave temples of Hsiang-tang-shan the influences
of the Gupta style are also seen in the representation of jewellery, lotus
leaves and vine stems, and in the rounded style and graded modelling
of the seated Buddhas. Š

From the T’ang period onwards Indian art was increasingly absorbed
by Chinese art traditions. Indeed, the faces of all the Buddhist deities
became Chinese in appearance. In the Tun-huang caves, one can
see how the distinct Indian figures of the Wei period went through
physiognomical changes to become Chinese by the Sung period.

The oldest Chinese aesthetic traditions go back to the fourth or
fifth century when Buddhism was in ascendancy, and they are strongly
reminiscent of the Indian principles of aesthetics. The six principles of
painting of Sie-Ho (479-501) are parallel to shadanga, the six principles
of painting described in ancient Indian literature—rupa, pramana, bhava,
lavanya, sadrsya, and varnikabhanga.”

Ku Kai-Chih, one of the earliest and most famous Chinese masters,
employed Buddhist themes in the fourth century. By the time of the
T'ang period Indian influence appears to have found a dominant place
in Chinese painting. For example, the T’ang ideal of feminine beauty
more pointed face and rounded figure (compared to the slender elegance
of previous periods), with hair collected around and above the head and
an air of cheerful health—was the result of this influence. The most
splendid paintings of the T'ang period were of Buddhist inspiration, such
as those by Wei-Chih I-Seng, Yen Li-pen, and Wu Tao-tzu.

A remarkable school of painting directly connected with Indian
thought, although not with an Indian artistic tradition, was inspired by
Dhyana Buddhism. This school gained popularity during the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries and had a closer approach to nature than other
schools. Landscape painting had become an independent art during ue
T'ang period, but the landscape works of the Sung artists inspired by
Ch’an Buddhism are the best, Before this, the most famous Jandscap ;

painter was Li Lung-mien (ca. 1040-1106) who relied upon Buddhist
hens for his works. A romantic attraction for nature became i
goroipani inspiration of the landscape painter, and was strengthene

by Ch'an Buddhism with its reliance on intuition and contempt %
appearances. The elements of nature were transformed into abstrac

404

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

ideas. The Sung painter saw the mountains as if floating in the distance,
having no real existence. Ma Yuan’s (1190-1224) picture of a solitary
fisherman, lost in the middle of a lake in the winter with no bank visible,
is a most poignant painting. Another outstanding artist of this school
was Liang Kai, whose masterpiece is a picture of the Buddha, leaning
on his stick near a stream in a strange landscape of steep mountains.
The greatest of them all was Muchi, who worked in a Ch’an monastery
near Hangchow, but whose work is now mainly preserved in Japan. His
painting, “The Ch’an Master in Meditation,” in which a serpent is curled
around an ascetic or a holy man who is completely unconcerned, is a
familiar scene in Indian art, but in China it is particularly characteristic
of the Ch’an School.

Ch’an influence is similarly seen in the painting of flowers. The Ch’an
artist saw in flowers a reflection of the Buddha essence and he sought to
capture its spiritual significance by identifying himself with the object
through intense mental concentration. Favourite themes were plum
blossoms, vines, orchids, and narcissi—messengers of spring. A vast
literature has grown up around these motifs. Another favourite theme
was the bamboo, which, by its uprightness and the inner emptiness of
its hollow stem, symbolized the Buddhist ideal. Hence, to paint bamboo
with devotion was an ascetic exercise leading to a state of spirituality.

By the thirteenth century Indian influence in painting waned, although
images of the Buddha continued to be made in the traditional manner.
With the decline of Buddhism in China, Buddhist art also declined.

In architecture, India’s contribution is not as notable as it is in painting
or sculpture, although some influence can be seen in the temples. The
Pagoda type of temple is of Indian origin, but it appears that the traditional
Indian style of stupa did not catch on in China. The architecture of all
Chinese temples, Buddhist, Taoist, or Confucianist, is much the same.
Even the Mosques are, in general, identical with the temples, except that
they use extracts from the Quran as exterior decorations. It is the interior
decoration that distinguishes one from the other. There is virtually no
difference in the architectural design of temples and palaces. Certain
official rules prescribing the dimensions of all Chinese habitations were
taken from the architectural texts of India.”

405

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

CHINESE MUSICAL THEORY is based on the foundation tone, the pitch of
a man’s voice when he speaks without passion, huang-chung, which was
conceived as an abstract eternal principle; it was the basis of the Chinese
system of measures, of the calendar and of their astronomical calculations,
and a definite pitch in music. Everything, a ruling dynasty, political order,
or music, must have the correct pitch. From the foundation tone, other
higher notes were derived, and a five note scale was developed in which
the vibration frequencies were on the powers of numerals 2 and 3; 3 being
regarded as the number of heaven and 2 that of the earth, the sounds
in the ratio 3: 2 expressed the harmony of heaven and earth. Ancient
classical music was almost exclusively confined to temple worship,
religious rites, and court ceremonies. There was no well-organized class
of professional music teachers, no accomplished amateur musicians
practicing music purely for aesthetic satisfaction, and ballads and folk-
singing were not very common. The Chinese did not regard music as
an art to be cultivated outside temples and theatres. Buddhist monks
who reached China brought the practice of chanting sacred texts during
religious rites. Hence, Indian melody was introduced into Chinese music
which had hitherto been rather static and restrained.”4

Dancing and singing no doubt originated in ancient times but a
combination of the two does not seem to have existed in China before
the period of the Wei and Chin dynasties. The earliest known opera,
Po-tow (The Wedge), is reported to have been introduced from India.
By the end of the period of the Northern and Southern dynasties, several
musical instruments had been introduced into China through Central
Asia. Many foreign instruments also came during the T’ang period, and
the stringed instrument ya-cheng, played by rubbing the strings with a
slip of bamboo, came through Tibet. The Chinese Au-ch’in, a foreign
importation, is exactly like the two-stringed sitara of India. A popular
stringed musical instrument of the time, the K’ung-hou came from India
during the Han period. The Chinese guitar, called the pip which was

another popular instrument during the Han and T’ang dynasties, possibly
came from India.

Indian music was at one time so popular in China that Emperor Kao-
tsu (581-595) tried unsuccess

7 fully to proscribe it by an Imperial Es
His successor Yang-ti was also very fond of Indian music. In Chines

¥ 406

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

annals, references are found to visiting Indian musicians, who reached
China from India, Kucha, Kashgar, Bokhara, and Cambodia. Even
Needham, the well-known advocate of Chinese cultural and scientific
priority, admits “Indian music came through Kucha to China just before
the Sui period and had a great vogue there in the hands of exponents
such as Ts’20 Miao-ta of Brahminical origin.”

By the end of the sixth century Indian music had been given state
recognition. During the T’ang period, Indian music was quite popular,
especially the famous Rainbow Garment Dance melody. There were
Indian, Central Asian, and Southeast Asian orchestras, and each year
the Emperor invited musical parties from abroad to the Tang court. A
contemporary Chinese poet, Po Chu-yi, wrote a poem in praise of Indian
music. “It is little wonder,” an official publication of the Chinese Repubhe

-says, “that when a Chinese audience today hears Indian music they feel

that while possessing a piquant Indian flavour it has a remarkable affinity
with Chinese music.” However, Chinese music has always retained its
own character and values.

ONE REASON For the early success of Buddhism was the Chinese
fascination for Buddhist science and knowledge of elixirs and practices
that were thought to promote longevity or produce levitation. However,
the history of the migration of Buddhism to China has not yet been
seriously examined with a view to tracing the exchange of scientific ideas;
the study of the history of Indian science itself has hardly begun. Broadly
speaking there are two reasons for this: the interest in Buddhist religion
and philosophy, which constitute the more fascinating and spectacular
side of the story, has been, understandably, too concentrated to allow
specific investigation of secondary concepts relating to science; and,
Second, such a study would require exceptional scholarship, including
competence in several languages, such as Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Persian,
plus a keen sense and understanding of history and philosophy, and a
thorough knowledge of science. Joseph Needham, in his multi-volume
history of Chinese science, alludes to Indian ideas, but only very briefly
and he has used a limited range of sources. He prefers to rely on Chinese
materials and some well-known but hopelessly out-of-date Indian
Commentaries, such as V. A. Smith for Indian history and G- R. Kaye

407

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

for Indian mathematics. Perhaps the limitations of an arbitrary Selection
of Indian references, more than his generous disposition towards Ching
and his reliance on Chinese sources which were disinclined to admit to
any substantial “barbarian” influence on Chinese achievement, h
his scientific objectivity towards China.”

A major Buddhist influence on Chinese science was in scientific
thought itself. Buddhist concepts, such as the infinity of space and time,
and the plurality of worlds and of time-cycles or kalpas (chieh), had a
stimulating effect on Chinese inquiry, broadening the Chinese outlook
and better equipping it to investigate scientific problems. For example,
the Indian doctrine of pralayas, or recurrent world catastrophes in which
sea and land were turned upside down before another world was recreated
to go through the four cycles—differentiation (ch’eng), stagnation (chu),
destruction (huai), and emptiness (Aung)—which was later adopted by
Neoconfucianists, was responsible for the Chinese recognition of the
true nature of fossils long before they were understood in Europe. Again,
the Indian doctrine of karma (¢so-yeh), or metempsychosis, influenced
Chinese scientific thought on the process of biological change involving
both phylogeny and ontogeny. Buddhist iconography contained a
biological element. Buddhism also introduced a highly developed theory
of logic, both formal and dialectical, and of epistemology.

Tantric Buddhism, which reached China in the eighth century oF
before, and in which the worship of personal gods was mixed with strong
magical elements, may have contributed to the scientific development
in the sense that it asserted the validity of the principle that magic and
science were originally united in a single undifferentiated complex of
manual operations.” The greatest Chinese astronomer and mathematician
of his time, I-hsing (682-727), was a Tantric Buddhist monk.

Whilst the work of Indian mathematicians was carried westward by
the Arabs and transmitted to Europe, it was taken eastward by Indian
Buddhist monks and professional mathematicians. There is Soris
evidence that works on Indian astronomy were in circulation in China
well before the T'ang period. In the annals of the Sui dynasty, numerous
Chinese translations of Indian mathematical and astronomical works #°
mentioned, such as Po-/o-men Suan fz (The Hindu Arithmetical Rules)
and Po-lo-men Suan King. These works have vanished, and itis impossib s

ave tilted

408

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

to assess the degree of their influence on Chinese sciences. However,
there is definite evidence of Indian influence on Chinese astronomy and
calendar studies during the T’ang dynasty. During this period, Indian
astronomers Were working at the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy which
was charged with preparing accurate calendars. Yang Ching-fang, a pupil
of Amoghavajra (Pu-k’'ung), wrote in 764 that those who wished to know
the positions of the five planets and predict what Hsiu (heavenly mansion)
a planet would be traversing, should adopt Indian calendrical methods.
Five years earlier, Amoghavajra had translated an Indian astrological
work, the Hsiu Vao Ching (Hsiu and Planet Sutra), into Chinese.

At the time there were three astronomical schools at Chang-an:
Gautama (Chhuthan), Kasyapa (Chiayeh), and Kumara (Chumolo). In
684 one of the members of the Gautama school, Lo, presented a calendar,
Kuang-tse-li, which had been in use for three years, to the Empress
Wu. Later, in 718, another member of the school, Hsi-ta (Siddhartha),
presented to the Emperor a calendar, Chiu-che-li, which was almost
a direct translation of an Indian calendar, Navagraha Siddhanta of
Varahamihira, and which is still preserved in the Tang period collection.
It was in use for four years. In 729 Siddhartha compiled a treatise based
on this calendar which is the greatest known collection of ancient Chinese
astronomical writings. This was the first time that a zero symbol appeared
in a Chinese text, but, even more important, this work also contained
a table of sines, which were typically Indian. I-hsing (682-727) was
associated with the Kumara school and was much influenced by Indian
astronomy. In 720 he was employed by the Emperor to revise the
calendar. Whilst I-hsing’s works on mathematics have been lost and the
exact nature of his work is not known, Indian influence can be seen in the
nine planets he introduced into his calendar, Ta-yen-li. The nine planets
included the sun, moon, five known planets, and two new planets, Rahu
and Ketu, by which the Indian astronomers represented the ascending
and descending nodes of the moon. I-hsing organized an astronomical
expedition to the southern seas to chart stars that could not be seen in
China, and he also conducted a valuable project for measuring latitudes.
He made measurements in ecliptic co-ordinates, constructed armillary
spheres with ecliptically mounted sighting-tubes, and invented the first

ESC: =
apement for a mechanical clock.”

409

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Evidence of Indian influence on Chinese medicine is ev

: en More
definite. A number of Indian medical treatises are found in

É Chinese
Buddhist collections: for example, the Ravanakumaratantra and

Kasyapasamhita. From its very inception, Buddhism stressed the
importance of health and the prevention and cure of mental and physical
ailments. Indeed, the Buddha is credited with some miracle cures, and
he described his teaching as a therapy for the ills of the world. The main
emphasis of Buddhism has always been on the relief of pain and suffering,
An important Bodhisattva in the pantheon was Bhaishajyaguru, the
master of medicine. There were always many Buddhist monks noted for
their medical skills. Indian medical texts were widely known in Central
Asia, where parts of the original texts on Ayur Veda have been found as
well as numerous translations.

A basic doctrine of Indian Ayurvedic medicine is that of the tridhatus
(tridoshas), or organic functions and disturbance. The elementary
substances of the universe also make up the human body, and the proper
equilibrium of these elements ensures good health. Malady or disease
occurs when this equilibrium is disturbed, and the function of medicine
is to restore the right balance. The Chinese adopted this theory, as is seen
in the writings of one of the leading T’ang physicians, Sun Ssumiao, who,
despite his adherence to Taoism, was nicknamed the “new Vimalakirti’
because of his interest in Buddhist medicine. In his Ch’ien Chin Yao fang
(Book of Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces), he explicitly
subscribed to the Indian theory, and strongly recommended the study
of Buddhist medical literature to those who aspired to become great
physicians. His advice on medical ethics, requiring practitioners to subdue
desire and ambition, to develop love and compassion and to treat all, rich
and poor, Chinese or barbarians, intelligent or stupid, with affectionate
care and strict impartiality, is Buddhist inspired. In contrast, the famous
monk of the period, I-tsing, although he was a Buddhist and respected
Indian physicians, regarded the Chinese art of healing as unsurpassed:

‘The T’ang emperors patronized Indian thaumaturges (Tantric Yogis)
who were believed to possess secret methods of rejuvenation. Wang
Hsiian-chao, who returned to India after the death of Harsha, had bese
charged by the Chinese Emperor in 664 to bring back Indian medicines
and physicians. Wang Hstian-chao succeeded in finding a physician

410

a

j
|
i

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

presumably So-po-mei o Lu-chiai-to, and he may have persuaded other
physicians to go to China, although there is no evidence for it. Nor is
there any evidence of Chinese physicians ever visiting India; although
the possibility cannot be ruled out.

Considering that Indian medicine, especially operative surgery, was
highly developed for the time, and that the Chinese genius for practical
knowledge somehow did not work in medicine, it is not surprising that
the Chinese, like the Arabs, were captivated by Indian medical skills
and drugs.® In fact, until recently Chinese medicine had progressed very
little.8' Whilst the Chinese used dry cupping and massage effectively,
they did not practice venesection but substituted acupuncture, which was
introduced into China, as it was into Europe, from Egypt. Castration was
performed by Chinese methods but other surgical techniques, such as
laparotomy, trepanation, and removal of cataracts, as well as inoculation
for smallpox, were influenced by Indian practices.”

THe Famous SHAO-LIN style of boxing is also attributed to Indian
influence. Bodhidharma, who believed in a sound mind in a sound
body, taught the monks in the Shao-lin temple this style of boxing for
self-defence and for rejuvenating the body after exacting meditation and
mental concentration.

During the first millennium, Indian racing games reached China.
‘The well-known expert on the history of Chinese games, Karl Himly, _
on the authority of a passage from the Hun Tsun Su, a work of the
Sung period (960-1279), suggests that the Chinese game Pshu-p'u was
invented in western India and spread to China in the time of the Wei
dynasty (220-265). T’shu-p’u is, in fact, the Chinese adaptation of the
Indian chatus-pada (modern chaupur). Chess was introduced from India
‘a. 700 through the ancient trade route from Kashmir. The oldest and
best of the native Chinese games, wei-ch’i, did not appear until 1000."
Cubical dice (ch'u-p’i or yu-p’i), although found in ancient Egypt as well
4s in India, are generally believed to have reached China from India,
Possibly quite early. Arthur Waley is of the opinion that the prominence
of the number six in the Book of Changes was derived from the six sides
of cubical dice 84

411

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

DURING THIS PERIOD of Sino-Indian contact, one would ex

3 s : pect to find
some Chinese influence on India, but there is |

ittle evidence of such

influence. Since the overwhelming majority of the scholars and monks

oing to China,
China quite naturally assimilated more Indian culture than vice-versa

Most of the Indian monks who went to China settled there permanent}
and consequently, India did not have the Opportunity of exposure to the
knowledge these monks had acquired in China. The Indian monks felt
their primary loyalty to Buddhism and went where they thought they
were most needed. Historical accounts tell us that these monks lived
and worked until their death in the temple cells of China, on a simple
vegetarian diet, carefully translating and interpreting Buddhist texts.
‘They were above worldly temptation, and the very nature of their faith
precluded attachment to either nation or family.

By contrast, the Chinese monks and pilgrims who came to India
returned home, thus disseminating Indian ideas in their country. They
returned, not necessarily because of nationalism, but because of their
sense of duty to transmit their newly gained knowledge to those people in
China who were not able to undertake similar journeys. Moreover, many
of the Chinese travellers to India were simply pilgrims, who could not be
expected to have fully subordinated national attachments to their faith.

Furthermore, whilst Chinese monks came to acquire knowledge
and take it back, the Indian monks went to China on specific religious
missions to impart knowledge. There is hardly any evidence that the
Chinese monks brought with them any work which was translated inio
an Indian language. It seems that during this period of Sino-Indian
contact, the psychological atmosphere was one in which India wis
naturally accepted as the giver and China as the taker. Whilst the bestin
Indian thought was carefully studied and carried back to China, Chinese
ideas filtered through to India whether they represented the best of ies
culture or not. This mixed quality of assorted ideas operating in a limite

area could not approach the impact of the best of a vital culture working
in a much larger area.

Yet Chinese culture had some influence on India. The gabled wok
of houses on the western coast of India show a Chinese influenc® as
do the temples and houses in the Himalayan regions. Some Chines?

who travelled between the two countries were Indians g

7.
)

412

THE DRAGON UNDER THE BODHI TREE

influence is noted on Gupta coins, and the story framework of Kalidasa’s
Meghaduta suggests Chinese inspiration.® Chinese influence can also
be seen in Mughal miniature paintings, but this influence reached India
indirectly through Iran. The use of a certain kind of silk (china-msuka)
in India, different kinds of fruits including pears (cinaraja-putra),
peaches (cinani), and lichis, vermilion (sindura), the technique of
fishing in the backwaters, and the porcelain industry all owe something
to Chinese influence. Indians also learned the art of papermaking
from China.*%°

The Kamakhya cult in Assam, the Chinachara, a recognized form of
Tantrism in which the sage Vasistha was made to travel to China to be
initiated into this cult, is reputed to have been influenced by Taoist mystic
discipline. Although early visitors from India to China were struck by
the similarities between Indian and Taoist philosophies, it was not until
much later in the seventh century that India took a noticeable interest
in Taoism. By that time, however, Taoism had interacted with Indian
thought in China for more than six centuries and had acquired certain
Buddhist features. The main evidence for this Indian interest in Taoism
is the request of a king of Kamarupa, Kumara Bhaskara Varman (seventh
century), to the Chinese envoys, Li Yi-piao and Wang Hsiian-ts'e to send
him a portrait of Lao-tzu and a Sanskrit translation of Tao Te Ching,
the book of the Taoist philosophy. Whether this text was ever sent is
unknown; certainly the Chinese text had been rendered into Sanskrit
by 647.8’ Bagchi is of the opinion that the translation reached India and
was known in Buddhist mystic circles where it influenced the Buddhist
School known as Sahajayana, which later influenced a Vaisnavite sect of
eastern India, called Sahajiya.

After the decline of Buddhism in China and India, contact between
these two countries ceased. Except for occasional sparks of brilliance,
both India and China allowed their best accomplishments to stagnate,
deteriorate and even be forgotten. In China, technology, and in India,
Ene ceased to progress; both neglected to adapt their traditions
eae situations. Politically, however, China continued

nified and more or less stable. Only since the end of Western
domination have these two countries established direct contact and

Tes à
umed the process of cultural int jcourse.

413

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

During the period of Western domination of Asia, when M
Gandhi was engaged in his unique fight against oppression of all kinds
through love and non-violence, multitudes of peoples both in India
and abroad heard in his voice an echo of the Buddha and the Christ,
Gandhi's emphasis on non-violence and abstinence was well appreciated
by Chinese Buddhists who had known these concepts for centuries, and
also by Confucianists, because similar standards of moral values and the
same appreciation of human character prevailed in both China and India,
Certain social values were also common to both countries, and the most
important of these was the solidarity of the family.

India, on her part, despite certain fundamental differences of approach
‘and values, found much to admire in the Chinese revolution and in
China’s practical techniques of national reconstruction. The patriotic
fervour and single-minded devotion of the Chinese people, their intense
self-discipline, industry, and sense of national unity, their self-sacrificing
spirit to work in increased austerity to build future prosperity and their
almost contemptuous disregard of uninvited Western criticism have
made a deep impression on many Indian visitors to China. It appeared
in the 1950's that an era of unparalleled cultural collaboration between
these two civilizations might be opened up, but the divergence of political
ideologies and systems, accentuated by border disputes, diplomatic
tension, national vanity, and armed conflicts, have rudely interrupted
this interaction. Despite all this, a mutual respect for and the desire to
learn from each other's culture seems to have survived.

ahatma

414

India and World Civilization

Part II

Chapter I

THE EASTERN HORIZON
OF BUDDHISM

ONCE BUDDHISM HAD a firm foothold in Central Asia and China, it was
inevitable that it should spread into neighbouring areas, such as Korea,
Japan, and Mongolia. These countries had some direct contact with India,
although part of the Buddhist influence in Mongolia was the result of
contacts with Tibet. Whilst the exact origins of Buddhist penetration
into Korea are obscure, there is no doubt that Korea, like China, felt the
effect of two great waves of influence: one from the north, originating
in Central Asia and travelling to Korea and Japan by way of the Wei
Empire; and the other from the south, originating in India and Southeast
Asia and travelling through southern China, towards northern China,
Korea, and possibly also to Japan.

Tt was in the latter half of the fourth century that Buddhism reached
Korea. At the time Korea was divided into three kingdoms—Koguryu
in the north, Pekche in the southwest, and Silla in the south-east.
‘These states were continually engaged in warfare, and their boundaries
fluctuated. Although all of these states welcomed Buddhism and the
fortunes of Korean Buddhism, like Korean politics, were linked with
developments in China, the history of Buddhism in these three regions
1s not identical.

3 Buddhism was brought to Koguryu in 372, reputedly by royal
invitation, by a Chinese monk, Shun Tao (or Sundo), who came from a
small kingdom—China at the time was divided into sixteen states—on-

417

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the upper borders of Korea. He was followed by another Chinese monk,
A Tao, and in 375 the King built two temples, one for each monk,
Buddhism came to Pekche in 384 from the south through an Indian
or Tibetan monk named Marananda. It is said that the Pekche King
came to the outskirts of the capital to receive him. Marananda was soon
followed by other monks from China. Temples began to appear and
Buddhism became the state religion. Because of its isolated Position,
Silla was the last kingdom to receive Buddhism, more than thirty years
after it had been introduced into Koguryu. According to tradition, a
Buddhist priest, Mukocha, having cured the King’s daughter of illness
by offering prayers to the Buddha, persuaded the King of Silla to send
for monks from China.

It is quite possible that Buddhism reached Pekche by sea even before
it was introduced into Koguryu, because Pekche had maritime links with
South China. Establishing this fact is difficult for very few Buddhist
works of art from this period have survived in Pekche as is also the
case in Koguryu. In both kingdoms, art works were destroyed during
their dynastic wars with Silla. The absence of definite information is
particularly regrettable, since it was Pekche which established contact
with Japan and, in the middle of the sixth century, acted as a launching
pad for Buddhist doctrine and art into Japan.

In 668 Korea was united under the Silla dynasty which ruled until
935. Many Korean monks went to China to study Buddhist doctrines
and some even went to India. According to I-tsing, five Korean monks
visited India during the seventh century. Prajnavarman, a Korean monk,
travelled by sea to Fukien in China and then, after learning Sanskrit
and studying Buddhism for ten years at the Monastery of Great Faith,
proceeded to India in company with a Chinese monk. Of those wh?
went to China to study, Yuan-tso (613-683) of the Fa Sian sect and
Yuan-hiao (617-670) and Yi-siang (625-702) of the Huayen sect are
best known. An outstanding monk of the period was Wonhyo, ue
laid the firm foundations of Korean Buddhism, and whose works are
highly esteemed, even in China and Japan. However, he did not 8° te
China, which was under the Tang dynasty at the time, although it was
the fashion for scholars to do so. ‘The Huayen doctrine, proclaiming 3
Buddha-nature of all beings without distinction, was first introduce

418

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

into Korea in the latter part of the seventh century. As a result of the
work of Yui-shih, a Korean monk who had been actively associated with
the learned circles of Tang China, the “consciousness-only” doctrines of
Yogacara Buddhism spread in Korea. Korea borrowed profusely from
the Chinese civilization, and this tendency helped the development of
Buddhism at the time even though Confucianism, its formidable rival,
was also introduced in the early eighth century. *

Kyongu, the capital of Silla, was a flourishing centre of Buddhist
culture and trade, attracting merchants from India, Tibet, and Iran. With
the expansion of Buddhism, monasteries, temples, and stupas appeared.
Today a number of ruins survive in the vicinity of Kyongu, and some of
the early Sillan art is distinctly Indian in style.

The next dynasty, the Koryo which replaced the Sillas in 935, was
devoted to Buddhism.' Consequently, Buddhist art and learning were
extensively practiced, and the eleventh century became the period of
greatest prosperity for Buddhism in Korea. It was, however, a time of
recurrent pressures and invasions from people beyond the borders. Despite
success against these intruders, a feeling of insecurity remained in Korea
which may have increased the need to seek solace in religious escape and
consolation. At the end of the century, the crown prince became a monk,
went to China to study, and upon his return propagated the teaching of
Tien-t’ai Buddhism. On.his initiative, numerous Buddhist texts were
imported from neighbouring areas and published in Korea. During the
Koryo period, Buddhism became the entire basis of Korea's religious
life, affecting the ideology, customs, and morals of the people as well

- as the political and economic life of the state. Festivals were celebrated
by the Court with great splendour, and magnificent monasteries were
founded. Many Buddhist monks even occupied high positions in the
administration. Buddhist participation in politics, however, caused
increased opposition which had begun to emerge during the latter part
of the Koryo ascendancy.

Buddhism, hitherto the religion of the Korean aristocracy related to
the Silla dynasty, became the faith of the common people through the
efforts of such eminent monks as Pu-chao, who introduced Korea to Son
(Dhyana or Ch’an) Buddhism, and who is famous for his editing of the
Catalogue of the Chinese Tripitaka, known in Korean as the Taejang,

419

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

published in 1010. Son Buddhism spread widely in Korea and during the
twelfth century it became extremely popular as taught by Chinsul, Son
Buddhism eventually assumed predominance in Korea, al though during

the period of Mongol ascendancy in China, Lamaism was introduced

into Korea.

After the decline of the Koryo dynasty in 1392, Buddhism was
generally suppressed by the state with only occasional periods of respite,
Reflecting Chinese Neoconfucianism, the Korean rulers of the Yi
Chosun dynasty (1392-1910) encouraged the revival of Confucianist
teachings. Confucianism was accorded such enthusiastic royal patronage
that the Confucianists became extremely intolerant of other faiths, The
feudal lords who had suffered loss of power and prestige because of the
Buddhist emphasis on the equality of man, sided with Confucianism.
Despite the state policy of suppression, which became severe under King
Taijong (1401-1418), Buddhism continued to flourish as the religion
of the masses. A monk, Hanho, published a famous book denouncing
the severe persecution. The next king, Sejong, who in fact styled himself
as the Buddha’s protector, managed to end the persecution. A wise and
perceptive ruler, he realized the great literary value of the Buddhist
scriptures, which he helped translate. He is also regarded as the inventor
of the Korean alphabet, the Hangul.

In the fifteenth century, when Korea fell under Chinese domination,
the fate of Buddhism in Korea became all the more contingent upon the
fluctuations ofits counterpart in China. However, with the rise of Japan as
a major power, Korea came increasingly under Japanese domination, and
in 1910 was annexed by Japan. Taking advantage of the changed political
situation, Japanese Buddhists intensified their activities to encourage
Buddhism in Korea and recast it on the model of their own. Whilst
Korean Buddhism retained its own distinctive personality, it certainly
benefited by the efforts of Japanese monks. According to the figures
compiled in 1926, Korea had 1,363 temples and 7,188 Buddhist clerics-

Buddhism in Korea is still held in high esteem, and, despite ie
influence of Confucianist ethics on Korean thought and life, Korea os
one of the countries where Buddhists are still actively engaged in public

welfare activities, especially education. Modern Korean Buddhism is Zen
tinged with a belief in Amitabha Buddha and Maitreya Bodhisattva:

420

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Although Korea did not contribute a school of her own to Buddhism,
and made no notable developments in its doctrine, she acted as a cultural
intermediary between China and Japan, and thus transmitted Buddhism
to Japan.

Before the arrival of Buddhism in Korea, the existing local belief was
rooted in a form of Shamanism, a combination of cults of the sun, earth,
and natural forces, in addition to ancestor worship. In the days of the
Three Kingdoms, Koreans believed that the ultimate objective of man was
to understand, obey, and worship a heavenly emperor, who was the judge
of all human affairs. To this society, Confucianism introduced its ethic
and Buddhism its divinities. Buddhism came not only as a well-developed
philosophy but also as a mature religion. Soon it permeated all segments
of society and began to influence and enrich Korean culture, arts, music,
and all branches of scientific learning. It gave Koreans what they lacked
most: a sense of security and hope. When Buddhism first entered the
peninsula, it absorbed the local deities into the Buddhist pantheon in
the same manner as it had in China and Japan, hailed them as previous
incarnations of the Buddha and gave them new names. For instance, the
spirit of the Ever-White Mountains, the Virgin in Ever-White Robes,
was called Manjusri, whose abode was in the unmelting snows.

Korean Buddhism has frequently been a powerful factor in national
affairs, and at times it practically controlled the state. A major reason
for this was, apart from its popularity amongst the common men and a
certain military nature in its organization, its appeal to the intellectuals
and men of learning. Often Buddhists actively participated in patriotic
Wars against aggression. An important example of this was the resistance
Movement organized by Sosan, a monk, against invasion by the Japanese
war-lord, Hideyoshi. In war and peace Buddhists co-operated with
the state by mobilizing labour from their monastic order for works of
public welfare. For instance, the Manhan mountain fortress was built
by the Buddhist monks under the direction of the monk, Pyogam. As
Buddhism came to be associated more and more with secular affairs, the
construction of temples and pagodas and the publication of scriptures
came to be considered symbols of state protection against enemy powers.
Buddhist structures were also built for defence and security, although
their primary objective had always been religious advancement.

421

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

During the period of the Silla Empire, when Korea

was united
under one dynasty, Korean culture made great advances in

all spheres
tion of the

ngu. These
caves form a link in the long chain of cave temples extending from India

to Korea through Central Asia and from China to Japan. Sokkulam is
constructed according to a remarkably symmetrical plan and is decorated
with brilliant reliefs and statues. It was probably built in the middle of
the eighth century, although some scholars give it an earlier date. The
foundations of Korean temple architecture, however, were laid during
the period of the Three Kingdoms.

The sites and general environment of Buddhist temples and
monasteries in Korea closely resemble those of China and Japan. Usually
situated on hills or high mountains, they are walled around by tall and
imposing trees inspiring awe and devotion. An impressive gateway is
crected at some distance in front of the temple. On the frieze of the
portal, the name of the temple is inscribed, occasionally in Sanskrit
letters. The most impressive of the thirty-four Buddhist retreats in
the Diamond Mountains is Yu Chomsa , which features fifty-three
diminutive sitting and standing figures of the Buddha placed on the
roots of an upturned tree. According to an ancient Buddhist legend, this
Structure commemorates the foundation of the monastery by fifty-three
Indian monks who came to Korea many centuries earlier, and triumphed
over the hostile dragons by placing an image of the Buddha upon each
root of the tree.

Another art developed by the Koreans was the casting of bronze bells,
impressive and artistic features of every Buddhist temple and important
n Buddhist ritual. In Korea, however, they are particularly fine in form,
and are embellished with relief decorations of figures and ornaments. ‘The
Buddhist art of Silla was taken to China and Japan by many emigrants:

For instance, temples in the Shantung province of China were built on
the Korean mode

‘This period witnessed, amongst other things, the construc
magnificent cave temples at Sokkulam, southeast of Kyo

In China, or in those neighbouring countries where Chinese culture
penetrated, learning was the prerogative of a few noblemen and officials,
who guarded it jealously from the masses. But Buddhism broke ne
barriers, and whilst the Confucianist classics formed the basis °

422

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

courtly and aristocratic education in Korea, Buddhism appealed to the
intellectuals and to the common people, and formed the basis of popular
education. Indeed, by purposely recruiting converts from the humbler
classes, Buddhism made a significant contribution in tile diffusion of
culture. Wherever Buddhists went, religious literature was published
in the local languages. Even the statues, pictures, and scrolls carried
vernacular explanations.

China gave her language and ideographs to Korea. India contributed
Sanskrit and phonetic letters from which syllabaries or alphabets were
constructed, not only for vernacular writing and printing, but also as aids
to the popularization of Confucianist teachings. The Korean syllabary,
called nido, was, like the kana of the Japanese, a collection of syllables and
not a true alphabet. The nido gave a phonetic value to some of the more
common Chinese characters, although the idea of having a vernacular
system of writing was probably suggested by Sanskrit letters, some of
which represented Korean sounds accurately. The Korean alphabet,
unmun (common language), was invented by a Buddhist monk named
Syel-chong (or Sye-chong), one of the ablest scholars in Korean history.

The fourth King of the Yi dynasty, Sejong, encouraged the translation
of Buddhist scriptures, and is credited with having made a few
translations himself. The real efforts at translation, however, were made
by the seventh ruler, Sejo, a devout Buddhist and a great ruler of the
dynasty. He created an office for Buddhist affairs and had many Buddhist

Scriptures translated.

From Korea, Buppuism spread to Japan. Although a small country,
Japan has played an extremely important role in history. Despite the
limitations of their physiographic environment, the virile and dynamic
people of Japan were able not only to maintain their independence at a
time when almost all of Asia had succumbed to Western domination,
but also to make remarkable progress in modernizing their industry and
technology without losing the distinctive character of their traditional
culture. A major reason for this unique blending of tradition and
Modernity is her readiness to receive and adapt alien contributions. Japan
has demonstrated that the willingness to borrow and assimilate foreign
traits is not a mark of cultural inferiority but evidence of vitality. Japanese

423

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

culture is a compound of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism, Prince
Shotoku Taishi, who laid the foundations of Japanese civilization, likened
these three systems to the three parts of the tree of Japanese culture:
Shinto being the root embedded in the soil of national traditions and
disposition, Confucianism the stem and branches of legal and educational
institutions and of ethical codes, and Buddhism the blossoming flowers
of religious sentiment and the fruit of spiritual life. The Japanese people
may follow Buddhism, Shinto, or Confucianism, or any combination
of these. Indeed, at the beginning of the nineteenth century there
was a movement called Shingaku (heart learning) advocating such a
combination. Whilst proud of their traditional culture, the apanese have
often consciously endeavoured to acquire knowledge from other lands, As
early as the seventh century, Japanese leaders would carefully select able
and promising young scholars and attach them to their embassies abroad,
especially in China, charging them to bring back foreign knowledge.
Few parallels can be cited from history to match this Japanese practice
of importing knowledge. Even though the Japanese Emperor did not
at times agree with the Chinese Emperor on the question of rank,
the Japanese desire to acquire all that was useful from China was not
diminished. Because the Japanese eagerly sought foreign knowledge
and have guarded and enriched it with extreme care, Japan is often
justifiably described as a storehouse of East Asian culture. Indeed, this
characteristic has made it possible for historians to gain valuable insight
into the processes of the evolution of Asian culture itself. The history
of Asian music, of the theatre, and of ritual dancing would have been
imperfect without the aid of Japanese material. Some cultural forms,
extinct in their homelands, still survive in Japan: for example the music-
drama of seventh-century India.

Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, reflects the life a
temperament of the people and is closely connected with natong
traditions and social institutions. At first, it was an inarticulate religion
and preached no fixed doctrines; it was an unorganized worship of thie
deities and spirits of nature and of the dead, although some authorities
deny that Shinto originally included the veneration of ancestors. Whilst
the spirit of ancestor worship and the desire to preserve one’s house an
family possible existed, there was no clear conception of loyalty of n

424

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

piety, now an integral and important part of the moral life of the people.
Earlier religion was indistinguished from administration and this practice
enabled the imperial family to become the head household of the nation
and for the Emperor to assume divinity.

Chinese thought and religious practice played some part in pre-
Buddhist Japan, but these had degenerated into methods of divination.
It was only after Japan had been exposed to Confucianist ethics with
a metaphysical background, as modified by Buddhist thought, that
Chinese ideas made an impact on the Japanese mind. Confucianism
gained popularity with the royal court, and was later to exercise a
real influence on Japanese legal and educational institutions, and to
contribute a systematic method of teaching morality. Taoist thought
also had some influence on Japan but it was never very significant. Real
advances in Japanese thought and civilization were made only after the
advent of Buddhism.

With Buddhism came its rich heritage of learning in arts and sciences,
letters and philosophy, which inspired higher ideals and encouraged
indigenous art and literature. Buddhism provided a wealth of material for
metaphysical speculation, satisfying Japanese yearnings for the unseen.
Indeed, it gave them a clear and deep insight into a profound mysticism
hitherto unknown to them. It resulted in the development of elaborate
methods of spiritual training and the organization of ecclesiastical
institutions, and led to the teaching of a system of cosmology and
eschatology. The Mahayana form of Buddhism which was introduced
into Japan had acquired various ideas and practices on its journey from
India across Central Asia, China, and Korea, but Japan was able to
impress upon it a distinctive Japanese character.

Whilst there is general agreement that Buddhism first came to Japan
from Korea, the records differ as to the exact date of its advent. Buddhist
figures have been found on bronze mirrors dating from about 300, but it
is not certain whether their real significance was known to the Japanese
at the time. The first known prominent Buddhist is Shiba Tachito,
who went to Japan as a refugee in 522. Later his family produced more
eminent Buddhists, including the first Japanese Buddhist nun and the
Sreatest artist of the seventh century, Tori, who cast the main image of
the Horyuji Temple at Nara.

425

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

‘The history of Buddhism in Japan is generally divided into three
broad periods: the period of importation lasting from the sixth to the
eighth century (known as the Asuka and Nara period); the period of
nationalization from the ninth to the fourteenth century (the Heian and
Kamakura periods); and the period of continuation from the fifteenth to
the twentieth century (the Muromachi, Momoyama, and Edo Periods,
and the modern age).

Officially; Buddhism came to Japan for diplomatic reasons with a
delegation from the Kingdom of Kudara (Pekche). The delegation was
accompanied by Buddhist priests, and they presented to the Japanese
Court of Yamato a gold-plated image of the Buddha with some other
ceremonial articles, sutras, banners, and a letter praising the doctrine.’
The Emperor is reported to have been extremely delighted at what he
thought was “an exquisite teaching” and a radiant and beautiful figure.
‘The generally accepted date of this event is 552, one hundred and fifty
years after the introduction of Confucianism in Japan. Certain militarist
factions inside the Court and some conservative sections outside it
opposed Buddhism, but the Court supported the administrators and
diplomats who favoured a progressive policy. The scales were soon tipped
in favour of Buddhism with the growing influx of Buddhist missionaries,
artisans, and other immigrants. The introduction of medicine, arts, and
sciences, and especially of writing and astronomy, which invariably
accompanied the Buddhist missions, helped to further break the
conservative Opposition.

Emperor Yomei, who came to the throne in 585 for a brief period, was
the first Mikado to embrace Buddhism. He commissioned an image of
Bhaishajy aguru, the Buddha of Healing, which was completed after his
death and later installed in the world-renowned Horyuji Temple where it
can still be seen. It was during his reign that for the first time a Japanes®
Tasuna, renounced the world to become a Buddhist monk.

Emperor Yomei’s son, Prince Shotoku Taishi, ensured the per-
manence of Buddhism through a variety of ordinances and lege
measures. He became regent in 593 during the reign of his aunt, i
Suiko (573-628), and was extremely popular with his people.‘ He e
other Japanese dignitaries adopted Buddhism because they believed i
was the world trend of the time in philosophical thought. In penna

426

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

594, he issued his first Imperial ordinance as Regent of the Empire,
proclaiming Buddhism as the state religion and urging the development
of the Triratna, the three basic tenets of Buddhism: the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha. They were to be the principal objects of faith
and undivided devotion, and were to constitute the fundamental basis
of an upright life.

During Prince Shotoku’s regency (593-621), the state built the first
Buddhist pagodas, seminaries, hospitals, dispensaries, and homes for
the aged and destitute. The temple of Kokoji was built in 596 and the
temple of Horyuji in 607.’ At the latter, Prince Shotoku himself gave
lectures on the Mahayana sutras, especially on the Saddbarma bundarika
(The Lotus of the True Law), the Vimalakirtinirdesa and the Srimala
devi-simhanada-sutra. Later the Horyuji Temple became an important
centre for the study of Buddhist idealism of the Vijnaptimatrata, or
Yogacara School.

Officials competed with one another to express their gratitude towards
Shotoku for erecting Buddhist temples. These temples and their art were
effective means of attracting the people’s admiration and reverence for
the Buddhist religion. The mural paintings, panel decorations, ceilings,
and pillars provided the settings for Buddhist worship and ceremonies,
which were performed with musical accompaniment around the statue of
the Buddha installed on a dais in the central part of the temple. Thus, all
the fine arts were a part of Buddhist worship, which not only captivated
the devotees, but also automatically and almost imperceptibly released
and refined the aesthetic energies of its followers. The Japanese were
fascinated by these temples, and by 624 there were forty-six temples,
eight hundred and sixteen priests, and five hundred and sixty-nine nuns
in Japan. Japanese temples have always been built to honour emperors and
ancestors and, although the temples of all sects have mainly functioned
as centres of learning, worship, and the expansion of Buddhism, they
have also performed functions connected with funerals and the custody
of family graves. Thus, the Japanese worked out a harmony between the
family system, the emperor, and Buddhism.

Shotoku sent envoys to China for Buddhist texts, and he himself
Wrote commentaries and expositions which have survived intact. He
did not interpret the Mahayana philosophy literally but according to his

427

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

understanding of its true meaning. The value of his work for Buddhism
in Japan is perhaps as great as Asoka’s work in India. He set up direct
diplomatic relations with China, introduced reforms in administration,
and laid down fundamental principles of state organization in his Ky mpo
(known as the Constitution in Seventeen Articles). He thus provided the
basis of national unity, guided and inspired the country with the spiritual
ideals of Buddhism, and educated the people in arts and sciences.

With the establishment of a new and impressive capital at Nara
(literally meaning the “abode of peace”) in 710, Buddhism received
further impetus, and a new phase in its history was begun. Emperor
Shomu (701-756) played the central part in this progress; he spent
the last seven years of his life in monastic robes, having renounced the
throne after a rule of twenty-five years. Indeed, many Japanese emperors
retired from the burdens and pleasures of secular power to the ascetic and
peaceful life of the Buddhist monk. Known as the Era of Heavenly Peace,
Shomu’s reign marks a climactic period in the development of religion
and art, as well as in government administration. He built temples and
monasteries throughout the country as centres of religious observance and
discipline as well as of social work, especially medical care. He erected the
impressive temple, Todaiji, at Nara which houses the imposing image of
Roshana (or Vairocana Buddha) cast in a mood of calm reflection and
superb dignity. The dedication ceremony of this statue took place in 752,
with many Indian monks and visitors in attendance, and it is regarded as
the most brilliant event in the history of Japanese Buddhism. Emperor
Shomu also constructed the Daibutsu, the great bronze Buddha statue
rising forty-nine feet from the ground, which has come to be looked
upon as a symbol of a united nation.

In 794, a grandiose new capital was built at Heian, modern Kyoto, í
few miles north of Nara. ‘The capital of Japan remained in Kyoto until
1868 when it was moved to Tokyo. With the change of capitals, a new
phase in Buddhist activity began and new Buddhist structures wer®
built at Kyoto. It was during the Heian period (794-1191) that the
Kana alphabet was invented and Widely used. The Tale of Genji, P erhap ;
the finest literary masterpiece of Japan, in which the pessimistic vee
of Buddhism are interwoven with the sensuality of life, was also written
during this period in the eleventh century.

428

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

As Buddhism began to permeate Japanese society, its adherents began
to show preference for one or the other of its several imported varieties,
but later Buddhism in Japan began to develop its own distinctive local
schools of thought. During the ninth century two new sects were founded:
the Tendai by Saicho, and the Shingon by Kukai. Their principal object
was to present Buddhist doctrines in Japanese terms, and to discipline
the monks. Both sects stressed not only spiritual salvation, but also its
fulfilment in this world. It was through the efforts of the monks of these
two sects that Buddhism became firmly and popularly nationalized.

Despite its growing success, however, Buddhism still remained too
scholarly to be easily comprehended by common men, who were prone
to ignore its intellectual content and to respond only to its devotional
aspects. Consequently, a new Buddhist movement arose in the tenth
century preaching faith in the Amitabha Buddha as the best means of
salvation. The believers of this school needed only to recite the name of
Amidabutsu (the Japanese form of the Amitabha Buddha), praying to be
reborn in Jodo, the Pure Land, and thus obtain satori or enlightenment.
Various other sects, such as Yuzu-nenbutsu, Jodo-shu, and Ji-shu,
similarly emphasizing devotion for the Amitabha Buddha, arose during
the Kamakura period (1192-1333). Because these sects made efforts to
purify as well as simplify the doctrine and its practice, they were able to
command a large following amongst the peasants.

During the Kamakura period, when the devotional sects were gaining
popularity and feudalism was growing in strength, two new schools of
Buddhist thought emerged in the country. One was the Zen (Ch’an
or Dhyana) introduced by Eisai and Dogen, and the other was the
Nichiren founded by Nichiren. Whilst these schools shared some of the
characteristics of the contemporary sects of the Pure Land, they were
based on different principles. Pure Land Buddhism believed in salvation
through faith in others, whereas the doctrine of salvation through one’s
own enlightenment was the basis of the Zen and the Nichiren sects.
Zen Buddhism found its adherents mainly amongst the warriors, or
Samurai, and gave rise to bushido, the characteristic Japanese ideal of
chivalry, which is the most notable cultural development of this period.

€ samurai attached special value to loyalty, self-denial, temperance,
and the power of mind and will. Whilst the growth of these sects was

429

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the outcome of the process of adjustment between traditional Japanese
thinking and the vast and varied body of past Buddhist experience, the
emergence of sectarian differences, in turn, increased religious
and the acceptance of Buddhism by the masses.

After the Kamakura period no new major sect was founded in Japan,
But as a result of the cultural processes having been firmly set into motion,

there developed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, literary

activity

activities, as represented by the Ayogen or no plays and the tea cult, which,
combined with Zen Buddhism, symbolize the culture of this era,

Later, during the Edo or Tokugawa period (1603-1867), Buddhism
was used to combat the influence of Christianity. The Tokugawa shoguns
required everyone to belong to a temple, called danka, which meant that
all Japanese families during this period were at least nominally Buddhist.
‘The Buddhist clergy was also compelled to co-operate with the feudal
society of the Shogunate.

After the Meiji (meaning enlightened) Restoration in 1868, Buddhism
stood in danger of being deprived of public support because of the
hostility of nationalistic Shinto, although the new constitution guaranteed
freedom of religion. However, loss of state patronage and the challenge of
modernization compelled Buddhist scholars to investigate the doctrines
of Buddhism scientifically and to find new meaning in the old doctrines.
‘The Meiji government, whilst granting religious freedom to all, reasserted
the independence of Shinto from Buddhism and set it up as a state
religion. For a thousand years Shinto had more or less been absorbed
by Buddhism, and Buddhist priests had moulded Shintoism according
to their will. Even the fact that Shinto itself had profited enormously
by this long tutelage under Buddhism did not discourage the new rulers
from making it independent and supreme. Moreover, as Buddhism was
favoured by the defeated Tokugawa shogunate, it was looked upon as *
dangerous political adversary. Consequently, Buddhism suffered from
1867 to 1872 under a policy of ruthless oppression; Buddhist temples
were reorganized and their economic foundations shaken; large parts °
the temple properties were confiscated; and Buddhist statues, scriptures
paintings, carvings, and ceremonial instruments were destroyed i”
misplaced patriotic zeal. Buddhist monks and nuns were compelled i
take up secular work. Debarred from participating in Shinto ceremonies,

430

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

they were subjected to beatings and threats. Members of the royal family
were no longer allowed to continue in Buddhist orders, and Buddhist
ceremonies in the Imperial Palace were discontinued. But Buddhism
survived this period of hostility and humiliation through the zealous
efforts of monks such as Ekido, Nisshu, Tetsujo, Dokuon, Sesso, Unsho,
and Mokurai, who realized the need for further reforms in their order
to adapt it to the changing times. ‘The state, for its part, realized the
futility of repression against a faith which had become an integral part of
Japanese culture and life. Even if there were to be no counterrevolution to
the anti-Buddhist policy, which seemed unlikely, Shinto-Buddhist bonds
could at best be severed in official areas and in the public institutions of
the two religions, but never in the homes. ‘The beliefs of the common
people were too inextricably a blending of Shinto and Buddhism to
allow the continuation of any open policy of Buddhist suppression. In
any case, exclusivist policies are alien to the Japanese temperament, and
even the official recognition of Shinto as a state religion was abolished
after World War II.

The technological progress of Western civilization which deeply
impressed the Japanese mind proved another challenge to Buddhism.
But it also stirred the Japanese Buddhists to emphasize their own original
rationalism and spirit of inquiry, thus bringing their faith in line with the
demands of changing times. Simultaneously, the missionary activities of
Christian missions, which invariably came with Europeans, gave a strong
impetus to Buddhist revival. In fact, the forces of opposition, persecution,
rationalism, and evangelism served to fill the Buddhists with a new zeal
to modernize and sharpen their doctrine.

Meanwhile, Europe had begun to study Buddhism with scientific
Scrutiny, some scholars with sympathy and admiration but none with
devotion. This movement gave a further helping hand to Japanese
Buddhism, although by far the most energy and ability to reform came
from within. Eminent Japanese scholars, such as Masaharu Anesaki
Junjiro Takakusu, Bunyo Nanjio, and Bunzaburo Matsumoto, studied
in Europe and returned to direct modern Buddhist studies in Japan.
‘Their efforts, despite some opposition from orthodoxy, bore remarkable
Success, culminating in a movement amongst the clergy, laity, scholars,
intelligentsia, artists, and others to advance the new scientific Buddhism.

431

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Few Inp1an Buppuist monks came to Japan; Buddhism was spread
there largely through the efforts of Japanese and Chinese monks. Durin

the reign of Emperor Kotoku (645-654), a scholarly Indian monk, Hodo
(Dharmamarga or Dharmapatha), is said to have come to Japan from
Rajagrha, India. However, evidence supporting this visit is inconclusive,
Japanese chronicles mention Bodhisena as the most prominent amongst
a number of early Indian monks who came to Japan. Whilst the details
of his life in India are not known, he is much revered in Japan. Having
received mystic inspiration from the Bodhisattva Manjusti, he set out
from India for China and arrived there in 730. Young in years but mature
in wisdom, he was welcomed by both the clergy and laity. Impressed
by his integrity and reputation, some Japanese monks and envoys who
were on a mission in China at the time persuaded Bodhisena to come to
Japan. Accompanied by monks and musicians, including a Vietnamese
monk, Fu-che, and a Chinese monk, Tao Hsuan, Bodhisena arrived in
Japan on 18 May 736 after a stormy sea journey. By this time Japanese
Buddhism was more than two hundred years old and visiting monks
were, as would be expected, accorded an honourable reception. Bodhisena
settled in Japan and taught Sanskrit and preached Buddhism until he died
in 760 at the age of fifty-seven. When the statue of Vairocana Buddha
(Daigutsu), the biggest in the world, was cast and installed at Nara, it
was Bodhisena who presided over the religious ceremony of dedication.

A stupa known as Baramon Sojo (Brahaman Archbishop) was built in
his memory.

THERE ARE MANY distinctive features in Japanese Buddhism. For
instance, it abolished all discrimination between priestly life and secular
life, the prayers of saints and common people are of the same merit,
and people are instantaneously saved by Amidabutsu merely by reciting
prayers. An important aspect of Japanese Buddhism has been cre E
worship of Avalokitesvara as Kwannon is not an exclusive characteristic
of one sect.

However, today there are thirteen representative Buddhist `
in Japan: the Kegon (the Avatamsaka school), the Ritsu (the ee
school), the Hosso (the Dharmalaksana school), the Tendai, the ae
(Tantric Buddhism), the Jodo, the Jodo-shin, the Yuzunenbutsu, the}

sects

432

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

shu the Rinzai, the Soto, the Obaku, and the Nichiren. There were three
others—the Sanron (the Three Sastra school of Madhyamika), the Kusha
(the Abhidharrna-kosa school), and the Jojitsu (the Satyassiddhisastra
school)—but they are more or less extinct and have little independent
influence. Most of these sects originated in China. The Kegon, the Ritsu,
and the Hosso have retained their Chinese character, whilst the others
are Japanese creations. The three Chinese sects were influential in the
Nara period but they lost much of this influence afterwards as they were
opposed to the new Buddhism. The Hosso sect is a type of Buddhist
idealism, derived from the Yogacara School, and regards everything as
the manifestation of the fundamental mind-principle. The Kegon sect
centres around the worship of the Vairocana Buddha.

‘The thirteen sects are generally grouped into five major sects—the
Tendai, Shingon, Zen, Pure Land or Jodo, and the Nichiren. The Tendai
sect, founded in 804 by Saicho (767-822), better known as Dengyo-
Daishi, greatly influenced the cultural and spiritual life of the Japanese.
Saicho sought to harmonize all beliefs with the teachings of the Hokke-
Ayo (Lotus sutra); he taught that all men can become Buddhas and urged
them to attempt to do so. An offshoot of the Chinese Tien-t’ai, the
Tendai sect absorbed the ideas and principles of other doctrines, such
as the Tantric, the Dhyana, and the Vinaya Schools. It differs from the
Chinese T’ien-t’ai in its practical approach, although both base their
teachings essentially on the Mahayana text, the Saddharmapundarika,
laying stress on the Ekayana theory.

A younger contemporary of Saicho, Kukai (774-835) also known
as Kobo Daishi, founded the Shingon sect, which is the third largest
religious organization in Japan with approximately twelve thousand
temples. An ascetic, a traveller, an accomplished calligrapher and
sculptor, Kukai was a versatile and remarkable scholar. In the records
and legends of Japanese Buddhism there is no more celebrated name
than his.’ Shingon literally means “true word,” the mantra or sacred
formula, and its doctrine, based mainly upon the Mahavairocana-sutra,
is essentially magical or mystical. According to this sect, enlightenment
can be attained through the recitation ofa mantra or dharani. It is now
the only sect in Japan which retains Tantric ideas, and it has successfully
avoided the shortcomings of Indian and Tibetan Tantrism. Like

433

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Tendai, Shingon also endeavoured to effect a unification of Budd
with Shinto.

Pure Land Buddhism embraces the Jodo-shu, Shin-shu, Yuzunenbutsu,
and Ji-shu sects. The last two of these are much less important than

hism

the others. All these sects believe that salvation can be attained only
through undivided faith in the saving power of the Amitabha Buddha,
Amidabutsu. The followers of this system recite Nenbutsu, the name of
Amitabha, praying to be reborn in his paradise called Jodo (Sukhavati)
‘The emphasis, however, is on faith, not on recitation.

Founded in 1175 during the Heian era by Genku, better known
as Honen (1133-1212), the Jodo sect was mainly inspired by the
teachings of Shan-tao (613-681) of the Amitabha School in China.
Honen selected the Sukhavativyuha Sutras and the Amitayurdhyana
Sutra as his canonical texts. In the thirteenth century Shinran
introduced several important reforms in the Jodo sect and its monastic
order, seeking to remove the division between the clergy and the laity.
According to him, all living beings will be saved because of the vow
taken by Amitabha. Hence, the recitation of the name of the Buddha
is but the expression of gratitude. The Jodo sect as reformed by Shinran
is known as Shin-shu. Being a simple creed, it suited the common
man admirably and rapidly became popular. Today it has the largest
following in Japan.

As a specific form of Buddhism, Dhyana or Zen was first founded
in China by Bodhidharma in the early sixth century, but ultimately it
is a variation of the Mahayana School of Buddhism of northern India.
Zen Buddhism has three branches in Japan: the Rinzai, the Soto, and
the Obaku. Sote-Zen has the largest following, being second only to
Shin-shu. Rinzai-Zen was founded by the Japanese monk, Eisai (or
Yesai 1141-1215); Soto-Zen by his disciple, Dogen (1200-1253); and
Obaku-Zen by a Chinese monk, Igen (or Yin-yuan) in about Nes.
Eisai and Dogen had spent several years studying in China. Dogen ®
known not only for his strict religious discipline but also as one of ue
most prominent philosophers of Japan. He led a life of stern discipline
and devoted himself to discovering persons who could compete? y
spread the teaching of Zen Buddhism. His sermons were collected 4
published by his disciples after his death. The most important of me

434

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Sho-bo-gcn-zo (the Essence of the True Doctrine) is considered to he
one of the best philosophical works in Japan. He preached: “All human
beings have already been enlightened. They are Buddhas by nature. The
practice of meditation is nothing but the Buddha’s act itself.”

All sects of Buddhism emphasize tranquillity of mind but Zen
Buddhism stresses it most strongly. Zen teaches that tranquillity of
mind is the same as the Buddha’s ideal. Zen doctrine emphasizes that
meditation or contemplation alone can lead one to enlightenment. The
essence of Zen Buddhism is: “Look into the mind and you will find
Buddhahood.” This philosophy found great favour amongst the warriors
who valued tranquillity of mind. Patronized and encouraged by the
Shozuns, Zen Buddhism rapidly spread throughout the country, and
made far-reaching contributions to Japanese culture.

The Nichiren sect was founded in 1253 by Nichiren (1222-1282), the
son of a fisherman who became a patriot and saint of Japan. He lived at
a time when Japan was in danger of invasion by the Mongol Emperor
of China. Nichiren declared: “I will become the loyal pillar of Japan,
the eyes of Japan, the ship of Japan.” After wandering about the country
and long years of study of various doctrinal beliefs, he concluded that
the Saddharma Pundarika was the final revelation of the truth and that
the deliverance of the country from suffering could best be achieved by
following its teaching. Perhaps to counteract the influence of Nenbutsu
of the Jodo sect, he introduced the use of the mantra formula, namu
myoho renge kyo (homage to the Sutra of the Lotus of the True Law), the
recitation of which could give men the power to fuse themselves with
eternal life. Because of his rudeness and violent expressions, Nichiren was
frequently in trouble with the authorities, and his story is a long catalogue
of persecution, although he always miraculously escaped.

These Buddhist sects were not free from rivalry and conflict, and
disputes between monasteries were at times settled by force of arms.
There was much antagonism between the followers of Nichiren and
those of Shinran in the last half of the fifteenth century, mainly because
Buddhism in Japan was too closely associated with the political and
Social affairs of the country. Consequently, during periods of political
upheaval, religious leaders combined religious ambition with the contest
for power. Buddhism in Japan has often been a major political force and,

435

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

as in the Fujiwara period (858-1068), even threatened the sovereignty of
the state. Buddhist militancy, as reflected both in sectarian disagreements
and interference in power-politics, was also conditioned by the prevalent
feudal divisions, which became more pronounced in times of political
agitation.

However, it would be wrong to characterize Japanese Buddhism as
militant or aggressive, because if this were true, its missionary activities
would have invited military reaction and its highly developed philosophy
and intellectual equipment would have crushed many primitive beliefs
mythologies, and superstitious traditions. It never declared a holy war
Jihad (crusade), although for patriotic reasons, Japanese Buddhism has
sanctioned national wars as crusades for peace and goodwill on earth.
Because of its spirit of accommodation, Buddhism did not encounter
sustained hostility from traditional beliefs, except for brief occasional spells.

Although both Buddhism and Shinto have survived and have
interacted on each other, there has been, in marked contrast to China, no
persecution of “foreign” Buddhism by the “nationalistic” Shinto. Shinto
is a Chinese word (Shen-tao) and means “way of the spirits”; in Japanese
it is called Kami no Michi. Buddhism adopted a characteristic policy of
tolerance and assimilation towards Shinto. It accepted the Shinto cult
of ancestor worship, and the Shinto deities or Kamis—Kami has a wide

meaning, which may signify a natural object, or a god, or the original
spirit itself—as the temporal manifestations of Buddhist divinities. To
the early Japanese, Kamis were superior to men but, although powerful
(chi-haya-baru), they were not omniscient. This made it relatively easy
for the Buddhists to designate Kamis as the earthly incarnations of the
Buddha. The Buddhist pantheon was generally thought to represent the
“Indestructibles” (Honji), whilst the Shinto deities were interpreted as
their partial appearances (suijaku). Thus, every Kami was regarded as 4
manifestation of a certain deity. The chief Shinto deity, the Sun peer
was identified with the Buddha Vairocana. Buddhists made a practice 0

reading the Sutras before the altar of the Shinto deities. They worshipped
publicly at the Meiji and other Shinto shrines, and incorporated Shinto
deities and doctrines into their body of beliefs, including the Gace
given up since World War I, that the Emperor was the direct descendan

of the sun goddess and divinely authorized to rule.

436

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Shinto was mainly a primitive form of nature worship based on a
simple feeling of awe at the forces of nature, and anything awe-inspiring
was called Kami. It had no moral code, and its prayers and sacrifices did
not aim at seeking spiritual blessings. Shinto, like Confucianism, had
nothing to say about the state of the dead. Shinto had no educational
function; its priests did not preach or teach. The theorists of this simple
faith, which in fact has no philosophy, leaned heavily on the well-
developed philosophy of Buddhism in attempting to interpret Shinto
ideas. Hence, Buddhism so influenced Shinto that it is claimed that
without Buddhist umbrage for more than a thousand years Shinto
could hardly have survived as an organized religion; “Buddhism
imparted a depth and meaning to the old Shinto mythology and made
it philosophically respectable and acceptable to educated men. In others
words Buddhism equipped Shinto—a primitive religion—with a worthy
doctrinal and ethical content.””

Whilst it is true that there has been no sustained and violent hostility
between Buddhism and Shinto, it would be wrong to deny the existence
of disharmony between the two. Several Neoshinto movements arose
in the mediaeval period to emphasize the differences between Shinto
and Buddhist thought, and to assert the supremacy of the former. For
example, Yui-itsu Shinto, prominent at the end of the fifteenth century,
was the only school that sought to reverse earlier Buddhist interpretations
of Kamis and declared that the Buddhist deities were not the primordial
powers, but the temporal manifestations of the Kamis. In the eighteenth
century a similar movement, Return to Antiquity Shinto (Fukko Shinto),
emphasized the divine origins of kingship and exhorted the people to
return to pure Shinto. For a brief period after the Meiji Revolution in
1868 it appeared that Buddhism might suffer under the instigation
of Shintoist revivalists, but the Constitution guaranteed freedom of
religion to all and the fear proved unfounded. Much of the limited and
intermittent religious hostility was the result of Buddhist involvement
in state politics. It could be said with reasonable justification that it was
the politics of the Buddhist order, not the doctrine of Buddhism, that
spurred occasional resentment. For example, the resistance exhibited
towards Buddhism at the time of its official entry in the sixth century
was the undoubted outcome of political rivalry between two warring

437

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

factions—the militarists and the administrators—at the royal court:
the militarists sought to exploit the foreign origin of Buddhism in their
favour. This conflict lasted about forty years, and it became menacing
enough at one stage to threaten the stability of the state and the life of
the sovereign.

Shinto opposition to Buddhism has generally taken the line of an
expression of patriotic resentment towards an alien creed. Shintoists tend
to glorify the pre-Buddhist culture and belittle Buddhist contributions,
but this feud, although real, must not be magnified. After all, the over-
whelming majority of the Japanese people are Buddhist; Japan is the
leading Buddhist nation today; and Buddhism is inseparably woven into
the national fabric of Japan.

As in China, there was considerable Confucianist Opposition toward
Buddhism in Japan. But Confucianism was also a foreign doctrine,
and appears to have kept its antagonism subdued until the seventeenth
century, even though Confucianist hostility in China had been active for
centuries. These two systems did not come into conflict in Japan until
the seventeenth century when Confucianists began to attack Buddhism
from motives which were not purely religious. Their censure was not
directed against Buddhist thought; rather, they denounced Buddhist
political influence upon the nation and the administration. Antagonism
between the two came to the surface again during the early Meiji era
when some Confucianist scholars aligned themselves with a powerful
group of Shintoists to vent their doctrine of Haibutsuorn “Down with
Buddhism.” But this movement was short-lived.

APPROXIMATELY TWO-THIRDS oF Japan's inhabitants profess Buddhism.
The various Buddhist sects combined maintain about eighty thousand
temples and one hundred and fifty thousand clerics, and there ate
several colleges and institutes primarily devoted to Buddhist studies.
There is no doubt that Buddhism is an integral part of Japanese life
and a powerful force in the country. Throughout the country, countless
images of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas, sutras, paintings, and other
sacred objects have been preserved, both for the tourist and the devotes:
Buddhist festivals not only perform an attractive religious eee
keeping the spirit of the religion alive, but lend colour to the cultural Hi

438

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

of the country. For example, on 15 July every year Buddhists celebrate
Ulambana, a principal event in Japanese Buddhist life. It is a service to
pacify the souls of the dead, who are believed to return to their old homes
on that day. There are also the igan periods in spring and autumn each
period comprising seven days spread around the two equinoctial days,
called chunichi. On higan, Buddhist services recall the memories of the
dead. At midnight on the last day of the year bells begin to sound in
Buddhist temples. Through the ringing of the bells the worldly passions
of the previous year are supposed to be completely eradicated.

Whilst Buddhism provided a bridge between Indian and Chinese
civilizations, it also linked Chinese and Japanese culture. Those Indian
ideas which found their way to Japan were transmitted through China
or Central Asia, although there was some direct contact between India
and Japan by sea. According to a scholar of ethnology, there is evidence
of the presence of an Indian community in the Shima district in Mie
Prefecture.° These Indians were called Tenjiku Renin, meaning the
“masterless Indian samurai.”

Although China and Japan had always been in contact, it was not until
Buddhism was firmly entrenched in Chinese life that China was able to
influence Japanese culture. Before the arrival of Buddhism, Japan led a
fairly isolated, primitive life; writing was unknown, and religious beliefs
centred around the worship of natural forces and ancestors. But once
Buddhism had become an integral part of Japanese life and thought,
Japan appears to have begun to seek and adopt new ideas with amazing
aptitude.

The best way of assessing the influence of Buddhist thought and
Practice on Japanese cultural life, suggests Suzuki, is to wipe out all
the Buddhist temples together with their treasures, libraries, gardens,
anecdotes, tales, and romances, and see what is left in the history of Japan:
“First of all, there would be no painting, sculpture, architecture, or even
music and drama. Following this, all the minor branches of art would
also disappear—landscape gardening, tea ceremony, flower arrangement,
and fencing (which may be classed as art since it is the art of spiritual
training and defence of oneself against the enemy, morally as well as
physically). The industrial arts would also vanish, the first impetus to
which was given by Buddhism.”4

439

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

‘The advent of Buddhism made Japan India-conscious, eager to know
the country and the original texts of its new faith. The Japanese became
familiar with Indian culture and studied the Sanskrit language and
literature. Even today, outside of India, “there is no country in the world
where so many students are learning a rudimentary knowledge of Sanskrit
and Pali languages. There are many universities where they are taught these
languages. A great many books concerning these languages have appeared
in recent times.”!? In some Japanese temples, very ancient manuscripts
in Sanskrit are preserved intact. It is significant that many of those
manuscripts found in Japan are much older than those preserved in India.

Kukai started the study of Sanskrit letters, known as Shittan, a

Japanese equivalent of the Sanskrit word Siddham, with which ancient
Indian inscriptions and works often begin. Before this, during the
Nara period, the Vinaya; the Abhidharmakosa by Vasubandhu; the
Satyasiddbi by Harivarman; the works of Nagarjuna and Aryadeva; the
Vijnaptimatrata, Buddhist idealism; and the Gandavyuha sutra had been
studied. These are called “the Six Schools of the Ancient Capital." In
addition, Buddhist logic had been introduced into Japan in 661 by Dusho.
In the seventh century Dusho went to China with Tzu-en (Jion) and,
under Hsüan-tsang, studied the system of Buddhist idealism, which was
then the newest system of Buddhist logic. Later, in the beginning of the
eighth century, further impetus was given the study of logic through
the efforts of Genbo. In Japan, Dusho’s tradition is called “the teaching
at the Southern Temple” and Genbo’s “the teaching at the Northern
temple,” because they taught at Gango-ji Temple and Konfuku-ji Temple
respectively. Since then this system of logic has been studied in the
Hosso sect as a discipline subordinate to the study of Buddhist idealism
and the Abhidharmakosa. The study of logic became very popular and it
appears that prior to Western influence, more than two hundred works
were composed on Buddhist logic in Japan."

After Kukai, the other prominent name in the history of Japanese
Sanskrit studies is Jogon (1639-1702), who edited some Sanskrit dharanis
(magic verses or syllables) and composed a remarkable Sanskrit work
entitled Shittan-Sanmitsu-Sho, Jiun (1718-1804) compiled a thesaurus
of many extant Sanskrit manuscripts of the kind which consisted of 0°
thousand volumes.

440

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Although common people in Japan do not know Sanskrit they
are to some extent familiar with the Devanagari alphabet. It is not
uncommon to find wooden tablets written in Devanagari characters in
Japanese cemeteries. Japanese temples contain images of the Buddha
Bodhisattvas, and other divinities with nagari characters inscribed
beneath them. These letters are called seeds, (dia, a Sanskrit term), with
each identifying a single divine being. In mediaeval times some Japanese
warriors went into battle wearing helmets with Sanskrit characters for
mangala (blessing).

Japanese characters are undoubtedly constructed on the lines of
Chinese characters. Whereas Chinese characters are ideographic,
Japanese characters are phonetic like the Devanagari letters arl are
arranged in a sentence in the same order as in Sanskrit—subject,
object, and verb. Word order is not in itself indicative of family affinity
in languages, but there is further evidence suggesting constructional
similarities. The Japanese used certain shortened Chinese characters
to develop a syllabic alphabet of their own. The older method of using
Chinese characters with a similar pronunciation to render certain
Japanese words phonetically did not work satisfactorily, because it was
neither simple nor well regulated. A Chinese character represents a whole
syllable and thus the Japanese did not think of spelling the sounds of their
language by separate signs for vowels and consonants until they came
into contact with the Indian alphabet, which, regarding the consonants
as the most important letters, indicated the vowels by additional signs
placed around the consonants. In the Japanese syllabary the vowels are
arranged in exactly the same order as in the Indian alphabet: a,i,u,¢,0. The
groups of consonants then follow accompanied by vowels: for example,
ka, ki, ku, ke, ko. A Japanese song, irohauta, attributed to Kukai, the
supposed inventor of Japanese letters, is made up of all the forty-seven
letters, and is nothing but a free translation ofa Buddhist poem written
in ancient India."

The arrangement of the Japanese syllabary into fifty phonetic sounds
is regarded by Japanese scholars as no more than an adaptation of the
Sanskrit alphabet. The system is undoubtedly the work of a Buddhist,
perhaps Bodhisena. If the Chinese language and script had not penetrated
deeply into Japan before the Indian alphabet, there is little doubt that the

441

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Japanese would have found it far more convenient to adopt the Indian
script rather than Chinese characters."

Unlike Chinese, but like Korean, Japanese has a well-developed verbal
system. In their phonetic systems Chinese and Japanese have nothing
in common. In Chinese, inflection is unknown and tenses and modes
of action are indicated if necessary by isolated words. The idea of a
sentence is implicit in Chinese by the syntactic relations of the Meaning
of characters, and, strictly speaking, it is not possible to differentiate
between nouns and verbs.

The development of a simple writing method and the perfection
of the Kana syllabary, together with the introduction of Buddhist
texts, inevitably influenced Japanese literature and learning. Indeed, a
remarkable process of literary activity commenced which was to bloom in
the Classical Age of Japanese literature during the Heian period. The first
philosophical works ever written by a Japanese, although in Chinese, were
Prince Shotoku’s commentaries on the three Buddhist scriptures—the
Hokke-kyo, the Yuima-kyo, and the Shoman-kyo. The first legendary tale,
Taketori Monogatari (Tale of a Bamboo Cutter), the story of a divine
maiden written in the ninth century, drew inspiration from various
Buddhist works, such as the Jatakas, and embodies the Buddhist idea of
moral causation. The fullest development of the monogatari tale is found
in Japan's first novel, the Genji Monogatari (the Tale of Genji), written
in the early eleventh century and a masterpiece of Japanese classical
literature. In the novel, the sensuality of worldly life is interwoven with
the pessimistic doctrines of Buddhism. This work, probably the earliest
novel of its kind in world-literature, was written by Murasaki Shikibu,
a lady-in-waiting at the royal court.

Buddhist influence with its stress on asceticism and didacticism can
be seen in the twelfth century collection of about two hundred stories,
entitled Uji Shui Monogatari (Gleanings at Uji), which includes a number
of Buddhist morality tales. The thirteenth-century work, Ji ikkinsh A
(Section of Ten Teachings), contains ten stories illustrating Buddhist
moral principles.

Indian legends also found their way into Japanese literature: An
example of this is the legend of Rishyasringa in which a rishi ie
had never seen a woman was seduced by Santa, the daughter of King

442

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Lomapada. This is a very famous story in the Mahabharata. In the
Japanese version the saint is named Ikkaku Sennin, that is Ekasrnga

(Unicorn). The Kabuki drama, Narukami, was derived from this legend.

Many such Indian stories were incorporated into Buddhist literature
and conveyed to Japan.

Painting was allied to literature, and received added impetus because of
the Buddhist keenness to disseminate knowledge through this medium.
One of the most celebrated Buddhist empresses of Japan, Komyo, hada
million miniature pagodas made for distribution. Each pagoda contained
a print of a short Buddhist dharani, or text.”

Buddhists also were remarkably successful in preserving the existing
knowledge of rival faiths. Buddhist institutions in Japan acted as
custodians of Japanese learning, whether Shinto, Confucianist, secular,
or religious. Without the protection of the Buddhist order, much of the
documentary material of Shinto would not have survived. The increasing
power of war-lords in various regions of the country, and the rise of a
warring feudal society in the mediaeval period, naturally put a greater
premium on martial skill than on intellectual learning. Therefore the
Buddhist monasteries rather than the official academies became the
repositories and guardians of knowledge and the chief sources of education.

Numerous Buddhist deities were introduced into Japan and many of
these are still very popular. Some Hindu gods, who had been incorporated
into the Buddhist pantheon, were amongst them. For example, Indra,
originally the god of thunder but now also the king of gods, is popular
in Japan as Taishakuten (literally the great King Sakra); Ganesa is
worshipped as Sho-ten (literally, holy god) in many Buddhist temples,
and is believed to confer happiness upon his devotees. A sea-serpent
worshipped by sailors is called Ryujin, a Chinese equivalent of the Indian
naga. Hariti and Dakini are also worshipped, the former as Kishimojin,
and the latter by her original name. Bishamon is a Japanese equivalent
of the Indian Vaisravana (Kubera), the god of wealth.

Even Shinto adopted Indian gods, despite its desperate efforts after
the Meiji Revolution to systematically disengage itself from Buddhism
and assert its own independent identity. Indeed, Shinto, before it felt the
influence of the Buddhist iconography, did not cast deities into human
form but represented them with symbols such as a mirror, a jewel, a

443

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

sword. The Indian sea god, Varuna, is worshipped in Tokyo as Sui-ten
(water god); the Indian goddess of learning, Sarasvati, has become Benten
(literally, goddess of speech), with many shrines dedicated to her alon
sea coasts and beside lakes and ponds. Siva is well known to the Japanese
as Daikoku (literally, god of darkness), which is a Chinese and Japanese
equivalent of the Indian Mahakala, another name of Siva. Daikoku isa
popular god in Japan. At the Kotohira shrine on the island of Shikoku,
sailors worship a god called Kompira, which is a corruption of the
Sanskrit word for crocodile, kumbhira. The divine architect mentioned in
the Rig Veda, Visvakarma, who designed and constructed the world, was
regarded in ancient Japan as the god of carpenters, Bishukatsuma. The
Indian Yama, the god of death, is the most dreaded god of Japan, under
the name Emma, the king of hell. The idea of rewards and punishments
after death was introduced by Buddhism; early Shinto texts do not refer
to this subject.

‘The climbers wearing traditional white dress, who scale the sacred
Mount Ontake as a religious observance, sometimes have inscribed on
their robe Sanskrit Siddham characters of an ancient type. Sometimes they
put on white Japanese scarfs (tenugui) which carry the Sanskrit character
OM, the sacred syllable of the Hindus.

The Japanese customs of cremation and ancestor worship were
influenced by India. Until the Meiji Revolution all funerals were
performed by Buddhist priests, and even now many Japanese who are
not Buddhist prefer Buddhist burial rites and ceremonies. To enjoy good
incense with a calm mind has become a cultivated art amongst educated
Japanese. The varieties of incense popular in Japan and China were partly
supplied by India. Specimens of ancient incense from India have been
preserved as national treasures in the Imperial Shoso-in repository.

‘The profundity of Japanese mythology and philosophy has its roots
in traditions that have been dominated by Buddhist thought since the
days of Shotoku Taishi. Both the individual and national dispositions
of the Japanese people have been conditioned by the teachings °
Buddhism. Even the common ideas and ideals that inspire and guide
the Japanese in their daily life are a reflection of Buddhist ideas: me
notion that everyone can attain Buddhahood is common to all Buddhism,
but it is particularly popular in Japan. The Japanese faculties of precise

444

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

observation, concentrated reflection and efficient transmission, humility
and perseverance, and the stress on the fulfilment of duties and national
obligations are attributed to Buddhism which is no doubt “the greatest
promoter of the culture of the intellect.”

An example of Buddhist influence on modern Japanese thought can be
seen in the philosophy of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945), who is regarded
as the most stimulating thinker Japan has eyer produced. In the latter
part of the nineteenth century a movement to blend Buddhist philosophy
with Western thought emerged in Japan. This philosophical blending is
perhaps best represented in Nishida’s doctrine in which he sought “to
give to oriental culture its logical foundation” or to see “a form in the
formless, hear a voice in the voiceless.” In the formulation of his theory
he drew upon the Buddhist concept of sunyata.

Buddhist influence can also be seen in the Japanese theory of
government. Initially, Buddhism was officially recognized in Japan for
diplomatic reasons, and the first Japanese constitution, promulgated in
604 by Prince Shotoku Taishi, was inspired by Buddhist ideals. Buddhist
monasticism played a significant role in practical politics in the tenth
and eleventh centuries. Nichiren, in the thirteenth century, sought
to identify religion with the state, and nationalism with Buddhism.
Buddhist monasticism in the sixteenth century has been described
as the greatest power in Japan at the time. The gallant samurai and
daimyo classes were influenced deeply by the various schools of Zen
Buddhism. Although Zen doctrines had been taught in Japan before
the Nara period, it was not until the Kamakura period that the various
Zen schools profoundly influenced the government and the military
classes. In 1916 the Buddhist Church publicly encouraged and welded
the spirit of nationalism, and protected the Imperial family and state.
When Japanese militarism was at its peak in 1937, the Buddhist
Movement of the Imperial Way became very powerful. Indeed, the
Chinese Buddhist Society severely criticized the Japanese Buddhists for
co-operating so enthusiastically with Japanese imperialist policies. The
demands of religion and the pressures of patriotism are not always easy
to reconcile. Japanese Buddhism departed from the principles of the
Buddhist Sangha, and adopted the distinct role of lending its support
to a totalitarian state ideology-

445

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Japanese education and social service Originated in Buddhism,
Education began in the Horyuji and other Buddhist temples, and q
scheme of general education was designed for the first time by Kukai
when he built his school in 829 known as Sogei Shuchi-In, The monks
not only taught religion and philosophy but also practical arts and
sciences. They even taught the people how to read and write, and initiated
the compilation of Japanese histories. Above all, they fostered the love of
nature and humanity, and broadened the religious outlook of the people,
instilling a compassionate idealism both in their thought and conduct,
They founded hospitals, dispensaries, health-resorts, taught the art of
healing, built alms houses, conducted free funerals for the poor, and
brought widespread relief from famine and pestilence.

Buddhist social welfare programs continue to be exceptionally
impressive. Having recovered its balance from the Shinto-Confucianist
attack of the nineteenth century, Buddhism applied itself to alleviating
some of the damaging consequences of a capitalistic economy on society.
Today Buddhism maintains an imposing array of social welfare activities,
such as public dispensaries, hospitals, infirmaries, maternity homes,
asylums, nurseries, kindergartens, schools, homes for the disabled and
the aged, libraries, information bureaus, social education institutions,
settlement houses, continuation schools, reform schools, employment
offices, and legal offices for the protection of the poor and needy.

‘Through the journeys of indefatigable Buddhist monks the whole
country was opened up, mountains were conquered, harbours were made,
roads were built, rivers were bridged, wells were dug, and swamps Were
drained. These monks promoted agriculture and forestry, planted tress,
constructed irrigation canals, and opened up new and extensive mas p
of land to a more enlightened industry and agriculture than pr imitive
Japan had ever known. For example, the cultivation of cotton in Japan's
traced to an Indian who had drifted to the shore of Aichi Prefecture 1
799. To commemorate the event, the Japanese named the village eS
the shipwrecked Indian had landed Tenjiku; Tenjiku was the J aa
name for India, and means Heaven. The Japanese also erected a shrin
in his honour and installed in it his statue cast in Indian costumé®-

: Japanese art, remarkable for its distinctive beauty, dexterity, A
dignity, bears some imprints of Indian styles. “The debt of art

446

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

Buddhism is even greater in Japan than in China, for on the whole the
gift of Buddhism to China was ideas rather than technique, whereas in
ancient Japan there was no art worth mentioning. Painting, sculpture,
and architecture, as well as engraving, printing, and even writing, were
all introduced in connection with Buddhism.”! Pre-Buddhist Japanese
art is important to history and to the understanding of Japanese society
of the time, but it is a very remote, almost unrecognizable and poor
parent of the rich Japanese art one is most familiar with. Buddhism
provided the spiritual inspiration that caused the Japanese to either
refine their own traditional art styles, or import Chinese or other
styles.

Earlier Japanese paintings, found mostly on the walls of chambers
of burial mounds, consisted mainly of totemic symbols and geometric
patterns in colour. Of the early Buddhist paintings, the most famous
is the one found on the panels of a portable wooden shrine, the
Tamamushinozushi shrine. It was done during the period of the Emperor
Suiko (592-628) and is preserved today in the Horyuji Temple. The oil
painting shows landscapes and Buddhist figures with slender limbs and
faces, which are regarded as the typical features of the Chinese art of the
period of Six Dynasties. Much of early Japanese art was produced with the
help of Chinese and Korean artisans, but they too were mainly Buddhists
who had been inspired by Indian tradition. Architectural development
also began to bloom as Buddhist temples were built on a grand scale with
elaborate detail. The Horyuji Temple, the oldest wooden building in the
world (with the possible exception of the treasury at Nara, the Shoso-in),
dates from the beginning of the seventh century.

In the eighth century when Buddhism had almost become the
national religion, Japanese painting embarked on a fresh and brilliant
course of development under the influence of the Indian chiaroscuro
style transmitted through T’ang China. A unique illustration of this is
found in the fresco painting, closely resembling the Ajanta art, in the
Golden Hall of the Horyuji Temple. In contrast to the romantic and
transcendental figures of the preceding period, the figures in this painting
are rotund and human.” During the Nara period, encouraged by royal
Patronage and enthusiasm for their faith, Buddhists made magnificent
Contributions in art, architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. The

447

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

accomplishments of this period were so brilliant that even today N

: at tee 3 oe ara
is the most impressive site in Japan from an artistic st

andpoint. Typical
of the excellence of the Nara art is the nine foot seated bronze Buddha
)

attended by the sun and moon.

Japan by this time had matured artistically and had devel
indigenous traditions. Furthermore, her contact with China was broken
around the end of the ninth century. Japanese art began to assume its
own character with the paintings of Kanaoka Kose, who flourished in
the ninth century and who is traditionally regarded as Japan’s greatest
painter. He painted secular scenes as well as Buddhist subjects. Genshin,
better known as Eshin Sozu (942-1017), is particularly associated with
the beatific vision of the Amitabha Buddha. He was a profound thinker
and held the view that the Buddha-nature was inherent in everyone and
that by contemplation of the innermost depths of the soul a manifestation
of the Buddha’s wisdom and power could be realized. This philosophy
gradually led him to concentrate on Amida Buddha, and he painted the
Pure Land in graceful lines and harmonious colours. Indeed, the surviving
pictures of the early period are all Buddhist, although the artists also
painted secular themes.

Kamakura painting, which is the most truly national, was deeply
inspired by Buddhism. Nobuzane, one of the outstanding masters of the
period, is famous for a series of portraits of poets, but his masterpiece is
the portrait of the Buddhist saint, Kukai, depicted as a child kneeling
upon the lotus. The great bronze Buddha Daibutsu, although an
emulation of Nara style, is in fact characteristic of the art of the period,
reflecting the mood of Amidism as influenced by the widening of
Buddhist consciousness. Temple architecture of the Kamakura perio
witnessed a variety of styles, some incorporating Nara features and some
influenced by the emergence of Zen Buddhism, which became a
premier spiritual force in Japanese life during the Muromachi perio :
(1336—1753). Zen Buddhist influence on art can be seen on the in
paintings of the period, including the extensive work done by the l
monk Sesshu (1420-1506), and the paintings of Arhats or Buddhis
saints by Mincho (or Cho Densu) (1341-1427). The Zen emphasis s
contemplation reduced the importance of icons in religious oei
Consequently, sculpture declined in importance.

oped

448

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

After this period the influence of Buddhism, which had been
thoroughly localized in any case, began to decline; or more accurately,
it began to lose its Buddhist identity as it assumed a Japanese character.
However, a good deal of it can yet be recognized in the works of the
Zen monk-painters, such as Hakuin and Sengai, and the poet-painters
of the Tokugawa period (1420-1868).

In modern times, when art began to depart from religion and head
towards secularism, it was inevitable that Buddhist inspiration should lose
much of its force. Still, modern Japanese art bears marks of the Buddhist
ideals of simplicity, restraint, and dignity. Buddhist ideals and traditions
are reflected perhaps to a greater degree in sculpture and architecture,
because of the utilitarian value of those arts in religious life and ritual. The
art of the woodcut, which has been brought to a remarkable perfection
in Japan, is a by-product of Buddhism, since woodcut engraving was
first used for printing Buddhist sutras and pictures. In fact, the earliest
specimen of extant printed texts are Buddhist charms enclosed in
miniature wooden pagodas distributed amongst the temples of Japan in
the eighth century.

Japancse music and dance was in a state of primitive development until
the arrival of Buddhism, in whose religious observances music played
an important role. Young Japanese musicians went to China and Korea
to study. The earliest known music-dance of Japan is Gigaku, a kind
of primitive mask-play which was brought to Japan in 612 from Korea
by Mimashi. Although Mimashi learned his art in China, the Gigaku
was of Indian origin, as is indicated by the masks representing Indian
features. More than two hundred of these masks are still preserved in
the temples of Nara. The masked dancers were led by Chido, a figure,
Whose function was to clear the way. Even today religious processions in
Japan are headed by a person wearing a long-nosed mask, who is called
Tengu. Amongst the dancers were characters representing a lion and an
eagle, which also suggests links with India, because there were no lions
in Japan (or in China) and the term for the eagle character, Karura, is a
derivative of the Sanskrit Garuda.

Whilst most parts of Gigaku have been lost, some fragments of it later
merged with the elegant and grateful Gagaku. Gagaku is the name for
4 piece of music, but it brought with it the dance called Bugaku. Both

449

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

were introduced to Japan by Bodhisena. This court dance and Music was
performed for the first time in 752 in celebration of the opening ofthe
Todaiji Temple at Nara. At this ceremony the Emperor Shomu unveiled
the Vairocana Buddha statue, and hundreds of foreign Musicians, q
number of whom were Indians, performed. Many of the instruments
used on that occasion are still in the Shoso-in Treasure House at Nara,
Buddhism was a strong inspirational force, and there is little doubt that
the orchestras of Japan were first organized to meet Buddhist needs,
Although this music-drama is more than twelve hundred years old, itis
still preserved in Japan in its original form, not only in records, musical
instruments, and masks, which are kept in the Horyuji Temple, but in
the dance form itself.

From the beginning, the Japanese aristocracy patronized this dance
and music. Consequently, the Gagaku and Bugaku became the music of
the court itself, both for ceremonial use and for entertainment. During
the eighth century, a Gagaku institute was founded, and was directed
on a national scale by professional musicians and officials. Many local
variations of the Gagaku resulted, but a clear distinction was made
between the local and foreign varieties. Those derived from India and
China were called Saho-no-mai. In the eighteenth century, it was decided
to designate only music of foreign origin as Gagaku, but at present ne
term embraces both foreign and indigenous dances. The Bugaku is still
played in some Buddhist temples and shrines, but the formal stage for this
art is found only in the Royal Palace. However, during its long journey
from the Nara period Bugaku has influenced the music of Japan in a
variety of ways, including the national anthem, as well as the Kurodabusht
a popular drinking song. These court dances and music are now extinct
in India, their original home. era

Japanese dance music is composed of eight, possibly more, pee
Bosatsu, Garyobin, Konju, Bairo, Bato, Riowo (or Ryo-o), Ama Ni ne
and Banshuraku. Some of these names can be easily traced to ie
origins; for example, Bosatsu is the Japanese adaptation of Bodhisat™
Bairo of Bhairava, Garyobin of Kalavinka, a sonorous, sweet voiced We
The Riowo dance, according to the famous scholar Takakusu, is a

of an ancient Indian opera, Nagananda (The Joy of the Snake) ee :
by Emperor Harsha. I-tsing, during his pilgrimage to India, 54

450

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

performance of this music-drama and, presumably, it was he who brought
it back to China, from where it was later transmitted to Japan.

The no plays of Japan were developed during the thirteenth to the
fifteenth century from what was called Dengaku-no-noh, meaning field-
music performance. The no owes its present form to two men: Kanami
(1333-1384), who was a priest of the Kasuga Shrine near Nara, and his
son Zeami (1363-1443), who was an outstanding actor, author, and
composer. The intricate term yugen, meaning “what lies beneath the
surface,” which occurs throughout Zeami’s writings, is derived from Zen
literature. During the sixteenth century, comic interludes called Ayogen
were incorporated in the traditional no performances. Kyogen was the
name of secular entertainments given to relieve the strain of long religious
ceremonies and the term implies a prayer to the Buddha that the chatter
of the mountebank may be transformed into a hymn of praise.

Certain analogies between Indian drama and the Japanese no play have
been pointed out. Just as Indian drama was originally a combination of
song and dance performed for inspiration at sacred festivals, so was the
Japanese no. Again, the development of Indian drama was from narrative
recitation to dialogue, first sung then spoken, just as in Japan the recitative
of the “tonsured lutist” was followed by the sung and spoken dialogue
of the no. Furthermore, in Indian drama the narrative connection
was often preserved by interpreters whose function closely resembled
that of the chorus in Japanese no. Both dramas were performed in the
Open courts of palaces or temples, and artificial scenery was necessarily
absent. Neither drama considered it strange that a character should make
journeys on stage. Both dramas excluded performance of the vulgar acts
of life: actors did not die, eat, sleep, or make love on the stage. Indian
dramatists invariably used classical phraseology which was generally
incomprehensible to the majority of their audiences, just as no plays were
Written in the classical language of the period, although the kyogen used
the common vernacular of the day.

By the seventeenth century the no play had become essentially an
aristocratic art. However, Okuni, a woman dancer from the Buddhist
shrine at Izumo, in the beginning of that century became the leader
of a movement to expound and popularize Buddhist religious dances
to the accompaniment of flute and drum. Through Okuni’s originality

451

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of interpretation the dance took the form of a simple operetta whic
a, which

appealed to the people. The new popular form was called Kabuki, The
Kabuki borrowed extensively from the no plays, and eventually the no
play became less exclusive and Kabuki less traditional.

Flowers, symbolizing joy, purity, and good luck, play an important ro}
in Buddhist worship. Incense, light, and flowers are regarded as t
offerings to Buddhist deities, who are said to live surrounded by

e
he best

beautiful
flowers; Buddhist images are always placed on a pedestal of lotus flower,

The Goddess of Mercy, Kwannon-Bosatzu, always carries flowers in
her hand. Various Buddhist ideas are expressed by the different colours
of flowers; for example, white flowers denote safety and health, red
respect, and yellow wealth. Inspired with religious fervour, the Japanese
perfected their art of flower arrangement. This art was, indeed, one of the
remarkable outcomes of the period of warriors. Its name, ikebana (living
flower), explains the fundamental principle underlying the art: the flowers
must be so arranged as to convey the idea of life, they should look as if
they were growing, and not as though they had been cut. Preserving the
living aspect of flowers is derived from the Buddhist injunction against
the destruction of life.

The tea ceremony of Japan also has its origin in Buddhism. The
ceremonial came from China, but its elaborate conventions and its
complexity as practiced in Japan would be utterly alien to China. It
became immensely popular during the mediaeval period of militarism.
‘The principles of tea-making were prescribed by the celebrated Buddhist
monk, Dagen. The etiquette observed during the tea ceremony ought to
become part of daily routine because all outward formalities are merely
expressions of the inner spirit. Tea must be offered with reverence, pul s
and calmness of mind: an expression of Zen Buddhism. The history °
tea in Japan goes back to the time of the Buddhist Emperor Shomu 19
the eighth century, It is said that tea was offered to the image of ae
Buddha, and after the service to the monks. Possibly, the use of tea wis
encouraged to keep the monks from drinking wine, as well as to kee?
them awake during long ceremonies, )

‘The popular Japanese game of sunoroku or sugoroku (backgammon
played at the royal court of the Nara rulers and still popular in pep
of Indian origin. In Japan the game is played as nard. Nard is gener j

452

THE EASTERN HORIZON OF BUDDHISM

regarded as an Iranian game, but the ninth century Arab scholar, Al
Yaqubi, considered nard an Indian invention used to illustrate man’s
dependence on chance and destiny. The board stands for the year, and
it has twenty-four points for the hours of the day. It is divided into two
halves, each of twelve points for the months in a year. The thirty men
stand for the days in a month. The two dice are day and night, and
the sum of opposite faces of the dice is seven for the days of the week.
However, this symbolism was also known to Byzantine Greeks, and this
fact disputes the theory of Indian origin. Whatever the paternity of nard,
sugoroku came to Japan from India by way of Central Asia and China.
Shwan-liu, the Chinese name for sugoroku was introduced into China
from India in the seventh century, possibly earlier. According to Wei-
Shu, sugoroku was brought to China in ancient times from Hu country,
which at the time meant a country somewhere in the vicinity of India.
Again, as Karl Himly has pointed out, the Hun Tsun Sii, written during
the Sung period (960-1279), states that t’shu-pu, another Chinese name
for sugoroku, was invented in western India, that it was known in its
original form as chatushpada, and that it reached China during the Wei
period (220-265).

Because the whole framework of Japanese culture has been provided by
Buddhism, it is only natural that the Japanese should take a deep interest
in Indian studies. In modern times there are few countries where Indian
studies are so widespread as in Japan. In 1881 a regular course in Indian
philosophy was formally instituted at the University of Tokyo. In 1904
an independent chair of Indian philosophy was established in Tokyo.
Also situated in Tokyo is the Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies
under the directorship of the eminent scholar Naoshiro Tsuji. At other
national universities, such as Kyushu, Hokkaido, Nagoya, and Osaka,
Buddhism and Indian studies are systematically pursued. Consequently,
there have emerged from Japan numerous Buddhist works and scholars
of world tepute.

Inthe changed political and cultural climate of Indo-Japanese relations
atter World War II, renewed interest in Indian studies developed in
Japan, particularly in the exploration of the socio-political, as well as
intellectual, background of early Buddhism. Consequently, Indian society
and history are also studied at various universities in Japan. Hajime

453

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Nakamura has played a significant role in this renewal of interest jn
Indian studies.

Japan’s industrial and political achievements in this century have
inspired the Indians, and Japan is playing an important role in the
repatriation of Buddhism in India, as well as in Indian economic
advancement. Buddhist studies in India have begun at university level,
and much of what Indians now study comprises contributions made
to Buddhist thought and literature by the Japanese and other Asians.
Courses of Japanese language and literature have been established at
Indian universities: for example at the Vishvabharati. The exchange of
leading statesmen and scholars in recent years has also helped to reactivate
cultural contact. The first president of the Republic of India, Rajendra
Prasad, paid his first official visit to a foreign country when he visited
Japan in 1958. In the same year, a Japan-India Society was founded in
India to further the cultural ties between the two countries. Independent
India declined to demand reparations from Japan after World War II,
and indeed it offered to return all Japanese property which had been
seized by the former British Government of India.

erate 454

ESE TT

Chapter II

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS!—
INDIAN FOAM ON PACIFIC WAVES

HISTORY IS FULL of misnomers; one such term is the New World, as
applied to the Americas. The landing of Columbus in 1492 undoubtedly
created a new life on the continents, but it neither created nor discovered
a new world. Many centuries earlier, Asian migrants had come to the
western shores in substantial numbers and in successive waves across the
Bering Sea, as well as across the Pacific; later, the Europeans landed on
the Atlantic coastline. The Norsemen or the Vikings founded a colony
in Vinland in the early eleventh century on the eastern coast of America,
probably as far south as present-day New England. And, according to
the archaeological researches of Paul Norlund, who excavated bodies
in Greenland that were clothed in mid-fifteenth century European
garments, the contact between Europe and the American region
continued until the so-called discovery of America.’

‘The first Maya Empire had been founded in Guatemala at about
the beginning of the Christian era. Before the fall of Rome the Mayas
were charting accurately the synodical revolutions of Venus, and whilst
Europe was still lingering in the Dark Ages the Maya civilization had
reached a peak of greatness.

The most significant development of the ancient American or
Asiomerican culture took place in the south of the United States,
in Mexico, in Central America, and in Peru. The early history of
Asiomericans is shrouded in mystery and controversy due to the absence

455

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of definitive documentary evidence, which was destroyed by the European
conquerors in their misguided religious zeal. However, it appears thar
after the discovery or introduction of maize into Mexico, Asiomericans
no longer had to wander about in search of food. Men in America, as
in other parts of the world, settled down to cultivate food
a byproduct of agricultural life, inevitably followed.

Of the Asiomerican civilizations, the best known are the

, and culture,

Maya, the
Toltec, the Aztec, and the Inca. The Mayas were possibly the earliest

people to found a civilization there; they moved from the Mexican plateau
into Guatemala. They were later pushed out, presumably by the Toltecs
who, in turn, were dislodged by the Aztecs.

‘The Mayan civilization was certainly in existence in the early seventh
century B.C., and there is strong evidence that it had existed prior to that
time. According to their calendar, which is extant, the time record of
the Mayas began on 6 August 613 s.c. It is an exact date, based upon
intricate astronomical calculations, and prolonged observations. To
work out this kind of elaborate calendar must have taken well over two
thousand years of studying stars, and the Asiomericans must have been
remarkably shrewd observers. The Mayan calendar was adopted by other
Asiomerican civilizations: amongst them, the Aztecs.

Indeed, one of the most characteristic features of the Asiomerican
culture has been the use of this calendar with certain variations in
different ages and areas, dividing the year into eighteen months of
twenty days with an additional month of only five days to complete the
full 365 days of the solar year. Ihe Mayas divided a month into twenty
days, possibly because they counted by twenties instead of tens. pach
month and day had a name, the days also being numbered progressive
from one to thirteen, then starting again from one. The 365 days divide
by thirteen left a remainder of one, but each of the thirteen me
could begin the new year. Hence, it was not until fifty-two yeas iy
elapsed that a year could begin with the same day-name and number i
‘Thirteen twenty-day months made another wholly arbitrary period °

260 days, which the Aztecs called sonalamatl. This system, with no bas

: s A ice. It ran
in nature or astronomy, was a pure invention, a reckoning device-

‘simultaneously with the other astronomical 365-day calendar 4 =
wheels of time. The two wheels came together again after fifty-tw° ye

456

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

The Aztecs adopted this fifty-two year cycle, and called it a “bundle of
years” and two such cycles “an age.”

Lacking accurate clocks, Asiomericans must have needed long periods
of astronomical observations to calculate the mean duration of the day.
They became aware of the increasing discrepancy between their calendar
and the celestial phenomena, and succeeded in working out the error
with remarkable accuracy. The Mayas calculated the length of a year to
365.2420 days; the present corrected Gregorian or New Style Calendar
reckons it to 365.2425. Whilst Asiomericans did not interpolate any
leap days, they computed the necessary correction at twenty-five days in
104 years or two calendar rounds. They brought the revolutions of the
moon into accord with their day count with an error of only one day in
three hundred years. In addition to this general division of the year, the
Mayas were using a long count, connecting their dates with a zero point
of their own, and “position numbers” for each day of a month. This zero
date represented some unknown or mythical event or perhaps the day of
creation, somewhat similar to the birth of Christ or the supposed date
of the creation in 3761 B.c. of the Jewish calendar. Because the Mayas,
unlike the Aztecs, did not content themselves with a fifty-two-year period
but calculated time by £azuns of twenty (a katun was equal to twenty funs
and a tun was equal to 360 days) and cycles of four hundred years, and
because the dates of Maya inscriptions are mostly from their eighth,
ninth, and tenth cycles, which roughly correspond to the first six centuries
of the Christian era, their fixed zero date or tile starting point of their first
cycle would be the cycle before 3000 s.c. The experts generally place it on
or about 12 August 3113 B.C. There is, however, no absolute evidence at
present to substantiate that their calculations of time had begun that early.

The calendar did not exhaust the astronomical and mathematical
accomplishments of the Mayas. Although they did not know that the
earth and Venus revolve about the sun, they had worked out that eight
solar years correspond almost exactly with five years or the revolutions
of 584 days each of Venus, and that sixty-five years of Venus coincide
with 104 solar years. Indeed, in astronomy the Asiomericans, particularly
the Mayas, reached the peak of their scientific achievement. They
made remarkable accomplishments for a people without astronomical
instruments, and without any real contact with other civilizations.

457

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The Mayas of Yucatan were the first people besides t

he Indians to
use a zero sign and represent number values by

the position of b
symbols. The similarity between the Indian zero and the Mayan zero

is indeed striking. So far as the logical principle is concerned, the two
are identical but the expressions of the principle are dissimilar, Again

a ia my ’
whilst the Indian system of notation was decimal, as w

asic

as the European,
the Mayan was vigesimal. Consequently, their 100 stood for 400,

1000 for 8000, 1234 for 8864, and so on. Whilst the place of zero in
the respective systems of the Indians and the Mayas is different, the
underlying principle and method are the same, and the common origin
of the Mayan and Indian zeros appears to be undoubted. But dispute
continues amongst scholars in the absence of any conclusive evidence,
apart from that of cultural parallels. As chronological evidence stands
today, the Mayan zero would appear to be anterior by several centuries
to its Hindu counterpart.

‘The Mayas had a practical knowledge of physics and geometry, were
exceptional draughtsmen, and used a form of hieroglyphics. They were
also accomplished builders and artists. Their architecture, sculpture, and
painting, especially of their peak period from 450 to 600, are skilfully
and artistically conceived and executed.

It is significant that the zenith of Maya civilization was reached au
time when India had also attained an unparalleled cultural peak during
the Gupta period, and Indian cultural intercourse with Southeast Asi
as well as with Central and East Asia, was exceptionally close. In fact,
the Gupta period had begun more than a century before the Mayan
classical age in 320 and Buddhism and Hinduism had been well known
in neighbouring regions for several centuries. If there was contact betwee?
Mayan America and Indianized Southeast Asia, the simultaneous cultural
advance would not appear surprising. In marked contrast, this was a
darkest period in Europe’s history between the sack of Rome and t i
rise of Charlemagne; China was in a prolonged state of political un

following the collapse of the Han dynasty. Fe

At the end of the twelfth century the Mayas of Yucatan W°
overthrown by Quetzalcoatl who came from the Mexican platea®
‘Thus began the period of the Toltecs or Master Builders’ ascendon]
in Asiomerican history. The Teotihuacan Toltecs were accomplisn®

458

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

architects, carpenters, and mechanics. Their era saw the blossoming of
a unified Central American civilization: the Toltecs were so prosperous
that their foodstuffs were not even priced. Quetzalcoatl was king, hero,
priest, astronomer, and the embodiment of all wisdom and compassion
for his people. He is identified with gods, and a vast legend has developed
around him. He adopted the Mayan calendar, reducing it to a system of
signs and ideographs to make it comprehensible to the diverse peoples
of Central America.

The succeeding era in Asiomerican history was a chaotic one, generally
referred to as the period of Aztec supremacy, which lasted with varying
degrees of authority until the Spanish conquest. Before their decline
the Aztecs made some striking cultural advances. They developed a
lake civilization based on the island in Lake Texcoco, where they built
their remarkable city, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, which was linked to the
shores by causeways, and surrounded by the colourful Chinampas,
floating gardens which were really artificial islands made by scooping
up mud from the marshy borders of the lake and holding it in place by
a breastwork of reeds. The roots of the trees planted on them cemented
the earth together. Thus the Aztecs converted the barren marshy land
into a grid of waterways and productive areas. This city was described
by Bernal Diaz, the companion of the Spanish commander Cortes, as
a dreamland which inspired the Spanish invaders to lyrical adulation
and murderous plunder. Diaz wrote that the Mexicans were like the
Romans, and that there was nothing in Spain to match the royal palace
of Montezuma.3

The Asiomericans had an advanced system of medicine and herbal
temedies, including digitalis. They had extensive knowledge of the
human body, its muscles, skeleton, and nervous system, and the Mayas
were particularly skilled in treating eye diseases. The Aztecs had well-
organized hospitals, which even their Spanish conquerors admired, and
their sanitation system was so far in advance of anything the Spaniards
had left behind in Europe that they were unable to operate it.

At the time of the Spanish conquest none of the nations of Europe
Was much superior to the Mexicans in botanical knowledge, and their
botanical gardens were more elaborate than any in Europe. They had, in
addition, developed an aesthetic appreciation of plants, and the Valley

459

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of Mexico was full of cultivated flowers. Their cultiv.
also highly skilled and sophisticated.

By the time of the Spanish conquest in 1519, however, the Aztec
Empire had degenerated to the extent that the Spanish triumph and its
accompanying ruthless slaughter and destruction appeared less savage
than they really were. Past-master of intrigue, betrayal

ation of crops wag

, and wholesale
massacre in Cholula, the most important sanctuary in pre-Columbian

America, Cortes slaughtered, in less than two hours, six thousand
people who had gathered in a temple patio. Destruction of Aztec
cities was so complete that almost everything lay in ruins. The elite of
the Asiomericans were put to death almost to the last man, After his
entry into the conquered capital Tenochtitlan, Cortes wrote that “You
could not put down your foot without stepping on an Indian corpse.”
In addition, his soldiery, as that of Pizarro a few years later in the Inca
Empire, driven by their lust for gold, melted down irreplacable works
of art by the ton to get the precious metal. The Aztec civilization thus
came to a violent end, but the Aztecs live even now, for without their
Asiomerican ancestry and heritage, there would be no Mexican people
or civilization today. ?

If the history of pre-Columbian America is obscure, it is because after
the Spanish conquest, the first Bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumarraga
burned all the records of the Library of Texcoco in Tlatelolco market
square as “the work of the devil,” and religious fanatics destroyed temples
and statues. Zumarraga, gloating over his success, wrote to his super y
in 1531 that he alone had had five hundred temples razed to the gron
and twenty thousand idols destroyed. Diego de Landa, the second Bishop
of Yucatan, following the pattern, reduced the Maya Library in oec
to ashes in 1562. These libraries contained records of ancient history,
medicine, astronomy, science, religion, and philosophy. What Poa
Theodosius of Constantinople did to the library at Alexandria to n
Christianity from the Greek and Oriental pagan knowledge eg
there, these priests did in Central America with similar motives but mo e
success. The burning of manuscripts continued for decades. Soldiers oe
encouraged to ransack palaces, public buildings, and private bo :
find manuscripts. Pablo Jose de Arriaga, the head of the Jesuit Ee r
in Peru, in almost unparalleled fanaticism, caused the system24°

460

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

wholesale destruction of all state archives, customs records, royal and
imperial archives, codes of laws, temple archives, and historical records.
Less than a score of manuscripts escaped annihilation.

The Spaniards destroyed whatever they could, but they could not,
for instance, burn the great Pyramid of the Sun and the remains of
Teotihuacan, which speak of the splendid bygone civilization. The
memory as well as the material evidence of Asiomerican past greatness
was lost in the excitement of the discovery and conquest of the new
and rich lands offering prospects for migration. No matter how much
historians stretch their imagination, it will never be possible to reconstruct
a picture of these advanced civilizations which would do them justice,
and yet be held historically acceptable. Thus, today the sources of ancient
Mexican history comprise about ten codices or books of pictures written
principally in ideographs but also in the partially phonetic representation
of Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs and Toltecs; some folios written by
Asiomericans in the Nahuatl language using the Latin alphabet manage
to salvage something of their folklore, literature, and archaeological
findings.

Beyond Mexico to the south flourished the civilization of the Incas in
Peru, which remained stable and prosperous for at least three centuries
prior to its subjugation by Spain. The ancient Andean or Peruvian
civilization also has an obscure history, although there is enough evidence
to support its existence and general nature. The first known Inca chief was
Sinchi Roca, who possibly began his rule in 1105. The Incas suffered an
even worse fate at the hands of the Spaniards than did their neighbours
in Central America. The Spanish assault on the Incas, the Spanish avarice
for gold, and the barbarities perpetrated in the wake of victory, including
the inhuman tortures publicly inflicted on the Inca King, Atahuallpa, are
illustrations of savagery seldom surpassed in history. So complete was
the destruction of historical materials pertaining to the Peruvian culture
that there are no extant records except those left by the Spaniards; these
are, of course, terribly inadequate and partisan. Perhaps the Incas did not
have a written language in the generally accepted sense of the term.

Despite the Spanish conquerors, the Inca culture survives today. Inca
government, based on a unique village system, was remarkable even
by modern standards. The village was not only a community of people

461

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

but a communion of these people with the soil; there was complete
identification between men and land. They were skilled farmers, Als
is said that the Incas lived as if they were to die the next day but farmed
as if they were to live forever. The soil belonged to the community of the
people, but the metals underneath were state Property. In criminal |
which was rather severe, the Incas made a distinction between Stealing
for want or necessity and stealing from malice or avarice, Of the two,
the latter was a capital offence, but the former entailed punishment of
the offender's village official for allowing his administration to create a
situation in which theft became necessary.

The Inca communication and road systems were elaborate. Two main
roads ran the length of the kingdom, one along the coast and the other
in the highlands, whilst transverse roads connected all the important
towns. The coast or Royal Road ran through the Andes south through
Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. It covered about three and
a quarter thousand miles, which makes it longer than the longest Roman
road which ran from Hadrian’s Wall, separating England from Scotland
to Jerusalem. Baron Von Humboldt claimed that as an engineering feat,
the Inca road system surpassed that of the Romans.‘

Little is known of the pre-Inca Meche and Chimu cultures, except
what can be gleaned from archaeological remains. But these speak
eloquently of their skills, ingenuity, and accomplishments. The dry desert
climate along the coast has preserved surprisingly well the remains of
its early inhabitants, including bones, textiles, pottery, and temples. ihe
Moches perhaps developed a means of communication by signs nee
on lima beans, and their pottery is particularly interesting. The canals m
aqueducts, bringing water from the mountains to irrigate the parche
coastal valleys, speak highly of their engineering skill; the age :
Ascope is nearly a mile long and fifty feet high. Their carefully contro s
hydraulic system in the fields was, perhaps, even more remarkable. Ift f
water flowed too fast, it could erode the banks; if it flowed too slowly, i
could silt up the conduits. By control of the imported water, cere
and natural fertilizer, the desert was made productive enough to supp?

a population far larger than any living there since.
Why did the

5 4 n
Aztecs and the Incas submit to such inhuma
merciless punishment from the Spaniards, and how was it that a han

aw,

and

one 462

Remon Teer a:

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

of mercenaries and adventurers were allowed to wipe out the highly
advanced civilization of an entire continent? The Spaniards had four
hundred men, fifteen horses, and seven light guns, whilst Montezuma
had at his command thousands of brave, experienced warriors with bows
and arrows, as well as the macquaitl sword which was so sharp that it
could lop off a human head with a single stroke. The Aztecs and the Incas
did not offer any resistance at first, allowing the Spaniards to roam the
streets, enter the most sacred places, destroy the idols they so fervently
worshipped, and even capture King Montezuma in the midst of his own
people. It was not fear that kept them submissive, for the Asiomericans
did eventually resist. The only explanation that appears somewhat
convincing is that the Asiomericans believed that at some period of their
prehistory, white men with beards had landed on their shores and had
given them all their knowledge. They were the white gods, who had left
with a promise to return one day. Hence, the Spaniards were mistaken
by Asiomericans for their legendary white gods, who were to be made
welcome, and if they inflicted suffering it was to be accepted as a divine
judgement. And, by a tragic coincidence, the Spanish conquerors invaded
Mexico at about the time, in 1519, as the Aztec priests and tradition
had predicted the return of the white gods.” The Aztecs even oftered the
Spanish conquistadores the vestments of Quetzalcoatl and other gods and
considered performing human sacrifice to them in case they were fatigued
after such a long journey. Throughout the Inca Empire, the Spaniards
were greeted as Viracocha, the Inca name of the great White God they
had been waiting for. It is only when the Asiomericans were completely
horrified and disillusioned by the brutalities and merciless killings, that
they recognized their mistake. The realization that the Spaniards were
Not gods but popolocas (barbarians), however, came too late.

The European conquerors of South and Central America not only
destroyed practically all the records and literature of Asiomerica, but
created an utterly distorted image of the American past by taking
some of its ugly features out of context and magnifying them out of
Proportion. For instance, the human sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs
Was repeatedly stressed without explaining its extenuating features, and
Without pointing out that human sacrifice had not been unknown to
other peoples, such as in Egypt and Rome. Taking their technique a

463

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

step farther they contrasted this picture with th

at of their own deeds in
Asiomerica in which European misdeme

anour, caprice, and crimin
were soft-pedalled and civilized and humane behaviour emph
wonder the Asiomerican past did not attract mucl

ality
asized, No
à attention and even
today remains popularly unknown and historically uncertain, Most People

believe that Asiomericans were uncivilized hordes with an occasional
freak of knowledge, who had contributed nothing of permanent value to
civilization by 1492. Despite a good deal of information to the contrary,
there is resistance to accepting a change in this image. Misconceptions
multiply fast but die slowly.

In the second half of the eighteenth century explorers and historians
began to take an interest in America’s ancient history. Alexander Von
Humboldt was the first man to recognize the Inca and Aztec civilizations
in their own right, and the first to give a serious account of their religious
traditions. He also saw the manifestations of artistic achievement in
Aztec monuments.

As interest grew, many explorers and writers gave their lifetimes
and even their fortunes to reconstructing America’s past. Lord Edward
Kingborough, who attempted unsuccessfully to prove that Asiomericans
were one of the ten lost tribes of Israel, painstakingly collected enormously
valuable data and published nine volumes of his Antiquities of Mexico
between 1831 and 1848, but ended in a debtors’ prison. Yet, without his
work the ancient American history would be much poorer.

Good luck played a part in John Lloyd Stephens’ discovery of the
first major complex of pyramids, temples, and terraces covering twelve
acres—the Copan ruins in Honduras—in November 1839. He bought
the site from the local owner for fifty dollars, and although Stephens we
not a professional archaeologist but an American lawyer and antiquarian
his find opened the way to Asiomerican archaeology. Edward Herbert
‘Thompson discovered the Chichen Itza in 1855, with its brilliant temp i
pyramids, and sculpture. Soon, others pursued similar work with as ot
devotion as skill and competence.’ Amongst the pioneer ee
works of William Prescott, who wrote during the second quate They
_ nineteenth century, are commonly accepted as standard writings- >
3 re still of incalculable value and in some respects remain unsurpass“

y in the English language.

464

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

However, such was the nature of the discoveries and research that
it was inevitable that this subject should have lent itself to divergent
interpretations and conflicting opinions. In this battle, not only
historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and, of necessity, scientists,
especially botanists, actively participate, but also institutions and Church
organizations, such as the Rosicrucians, the Theosophists, and the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), maintain
strong positions. It is indeed ironic that the world should have so little
information about the origins and early civilization of a people who
first cultivated the food its inhabitants eat in various regions; after all,
civilization began as a result of cultivation. Potatoes, maize, beans,
yams, squash, mangoes, peanuts, cashews, pineapples, cacao, avocados,
tomatoes, peppers, papaya, strawberries, and blackberries, are all
Asiomerican contributions to civilization.

Much of the discussion revolves around the origin of man in America,
and consequently early civilizations of ancient America. It is generally
conceded that man is not indigenous to America, for no anthropoid
apes, the ancestors of man, either extant or fossil, have been found in
America. The absence of such remains, however, is not definite proof
of their non-existence, yet, until such evidence turns up, the theory of
indigenous Americans would remain untenable. Even the theory of
Continental Drift, propounded by Wegener in 1912, which has recently
been considerably reinforced by studies in rock-magnetism, and which
claimed that the world was once a solid land mass that broke up into
continents and islands, may explain certain facts of geology, geography,
and prehuman biology, such as South American monkeys, but cannot
account for man’s presence on the American continent. For the continents
would have drifted away from each other before any form of man existed
in terms other than those of his simian ancestors. Even if man had existed
originally in America, this cannot exclude the possibility of early human
Migration, of which there is undoubted evidence. But the great debate
that has already lasted for centuries continues and seldom has so much
bitterness, so aueh militancy, not principally overlaid by nationalistic
passion, been noted in academic disputes as in this one.

Some of the theories which have been advanced to account for the
Presence of the Asiomericans on the continents are hardly more than

465

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

extravagant assumptions. Of those that have enjoyed popularity
time or another, the following are regarded as major hypotheses, Some
religious zealots have suggested that Asiomericans are the descendants
of the Lost Tribes of Israel who had wandered to America. This theory
was something of a fad with the earliest explorers. On the other hand,
the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century classicists liked to find
Carthaginian-Phoenician traits in Asiomerican culture. Later, the

Egyptian origin theory became the favourite, and even now enjoys
occasional currency.

at One

Of the numerous Egyptian enthusiasts, the most devoted was
Augustus Le Plongeon, whose intellectual arrogance and egotism
initiated a militancy, acrimony, and bickering in this academic debate
which has filled proceedings of numerous congresses of Americanists and
pages of historical writings. But he died a disappointed and discarded
scholar. After him, the greatest champion of Egyptian origins was
Elliot Smith, who wrote Elephants and Ethnologists, and who was ably
supported by William Perry. They amassed a staggering body of evidence
in their support, but before they could gain general acceptance of their
theory, they were confronted by one of the most meticulous of scholars,
Ronald B. Dixon, who minutely scrutinized their evidence. His verdict
was categorically against this theory which was seriously discredited,
despite the bitter counterattack against Dixon. Yet, this Egyptian theory,
in complete disregard of professional and scholarly opinion, stubbor nly
persists, presumably because Egyptian archaeology is so well known to
European scholars, and because they are so used to tracing their owo
early culture to Egypt. It is one of those academic irrationalities which
has gradually built up immunity to its own antidotes.

Similarly, two other schools, the Lost Tribes of Israel and the Lost
Continent of Atlantis, have substantial supporters who refuse to ele
to the weight of evidence to the contrary. Both these beliefs use sla
parallels with ancient America but claim that Egypt acted only 5
intermediary. The Lost Tribes of Israel theory is held by, amongst otier
the Mormons, and members of other religious organizations. The g
of the Lost Continent of Atlantis is almost as old as the Colum a
discovery of America itself. It was championed by Gonzalo one
__ de Oviedo y Valdes in 1535, and later held by many eminent Europe

466

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

scholars. As late as 1924 and 1925 it was effectively advocated by H.
Lewis Spence in his works, Atlantis in America and The Problem of Atlantis.
This theory of Lost Atlantis continues to be a favourite and is revived
now and then by new editions of the Spence and Ignatius Donnelly best
sellers. There is a Pacific counterpart of Atlantis, popularly called Mu,
or the lost continent of Lemuria. Its best known exponent was James
Churchward, who published his last book on the subject in 1931. The
idea of the lost continent of Atlantis providing a partial land bridge from
Europe or Africa to America, or that of a transatlantic sea-migration
which would conveniently explain the vague affinity between the Aztec
and Mayan calendar systems and those of the Nile Valley, or that of a
Pacific Ocean lost continent, Mu, linking Asia with America, are all far
too speculative to merit serious attention.

A post-war theory of Thor Heyerdahl, widely known as Kon-Tiki,
bravely supported by a daring voyage on a balsa raft, advances the view
that Asiomericans sailed westwards across the Pacific and populated
Polynesia. Heyerdahl does not deny, however, the Indonesian or
Melanesian origin of the present Polynesian race and culture, but suggests
that Indonesian culture reached Polynesia through a circuitous northern
route via Japan, America, and thence to Polynesia. Before Heyerdahl,
a Spanish missionary, J. de Zuniga, in 1803, and a British missionary,
William Ellis, in the 1830’s had similarly suggested that the eastern
group of Polynesian islands was peopled from America.

An Atlantic Kon-tiki was proposed by De Bourbourg, who argued
that the Egyptian civilization was derived from the Atlantean colonists
from America. Recently a view has been put forward that the Mayan
script came from Crete and the entire civilization revolves round the
emergence of a White God in ancient America, who may have come
from the Western world.

Some scholars, such as A. Hyatt Verrill, believe that men came to
America in a variety of ways, some from Europe via Greenland, others
actoss the Atlantic, some from Lost Atlantis or southern Europe, some
via the Bering Straits, and many more across the Pacific. He suspected
that professional archaeologists suppressed information contrary to their
theories.

467

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

An eminent amateur anthropologist, Harold S. Gladwin, who also
distrusted the common sense of the professionals, wrote in his book
Men Out of Asia, of a series of waves of migrants going out from the
various parts of Asia to settle in ancient America. He also suggested that
after the death of Alexander in 323 B.c., some survivors of the wrecked
fleet under Nearchus sailed eastwards, picked up artisans from India
and Southeast Asia, crossed the Pacific and reached America, where
they and their descendants founded the ancient civilizations. Whilst
the feasibility of such a voyage cannot be conclusively refuted, it is not
generally accepted.

Without diverting attention from subtle distinctions, it may be
said that all these divergent opinions fall into two broad groups—the
transatlanticites, who believe in western migration across the Atlantic,
and the transpacificites who support Asian settlers having gone across
the Pacific either through a northern route, a middle route or both.
Of these, the former view has been considerably challenged by later
researches, but lingers on.

Divergent views prevail amongst the enthusiasts of the Asian origins
of Asiomericans. Baron Von Humboldt, whilst visiting Mexico, found
similarities between Asian and Mexican astrology.® He founded the
systematic study of ancient American cultures and was convinced g
the Asian origin of the American-Indian high civilization. He said, if
languages supply but feeble evidence of ancient communication between
the two worlds, their communication is fully proved by the cosmogonits,
the monuments, the hieroglyphical characters and the institutions ole
people of America and Asia.” In 1761 a French scholar, De Guignes,
published his opinion that some Buddhits were sent from China S
Mexico, which was identified as Fu-Sang in early Chinese annals, a ne
fifth century. He appears to have based his hypothesis on the oe
of a Chinese legend which spoke of a Buddhist priest, Hwui Shan, W ;
was said to have come from ancient America. Later, H. J. Von Klapro®
endeavoured to disprove this theory on the grounds that the oe
question had come from southeastern Japan, and not from ee z
y Many scholars since, however, especially from France and some ™ de
n any, have rallied round the theory of Buddhist influence. M. :
y renewed the theory of Buddhist influence in 1844. A year 1%

468

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

a German orientalist, Friedrich de Neuman supported the view. Rivero
and Tschudi urged that Quetzalcoatl in Mexico and Mango-Capac in
Peru were Indian missionaries. Channing Arnold and F. J. T. Frost even
traced the chronological passage of Buddhism from India to Central
America. They argued that as Buddhism had spread all over eastern
Asia by the eighth century, it was rightly poised to launch itself farther
eastward across the sea.

Considering that at this time Buddhism was flourishing in Southeast
Asia, as well as in China and Japan, and was backed actively by powerful
Asian kingdoms, such as that of the Khmers, it would not appear
surprising that some Buddhist monks had voyaged across the Pacific.
Meanwhile, John Ranking, in his Historical Researches on the Conquest of
Peru, Mexico etc., suggested in 1827 that the Inca Empire was founded
by the crews of a few ships of Kublai Khan wrecked and driven across the
Pacific. In 1834, John Dunmore Lang, a minister of the Scots Church
at Sydney, declared that Polynesians had crossed the Pacific Ocean from
Easter Island to America under a violent gale of westerly wind, landing
somewhere near Copiapo in Chile. It was the descendants of these
Polynesians, he claimed, who progressively populated and civilized the
whole continent of America from Cape Horn to Labrador.'® In 1836,
J. Mackintosh favoured the view that: Koreans were the first to visit
ancient America. In 1866, the French architect, Viollet-le-Duc, also
noted striking resemblances between ancient Mexican structures and
those of South India.

All these scholars were also greatly impressed by the similarity between
the Hindu Trinity—Brahma-Visnu-Siva—and the Mexican Trinity—
Ho-Huizilopochtli-Tlaloc—as well as the likeness between Indian
temples and American pyramids. Later, two English scholars, Channing
Arnold and Frederick J. Tabor Frost, in their The American Egypt, made
a detailed examination of the transpacific contacts, reinforcing the view
of Buddhist influences on Central America. In 1947, Harold S. Gladwin
suggested successive waves of Asian migrants belonging to specific
archaeological cultures and linguistic groups; including Alexander's
sailors. The most recent and by far the most systematic, well-reasoned,
and effective case has been advanced by the eminent archaeologists, R.
Heine-Geldern and Gordon Ekholm, who favour Indian and Southeast

469

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Asian cultural influences on ancient Americ
the Pacific.

It is likely that man first came to America from Asia towards the
end of the last glacial period, probably between twenty thousand and
ten thousand years ago, across the Bering Straits. He may have gone by
sea or, more likely, crossed on ice. The water distance is only about sixty
miles, interrupted by the Diomede Island almost in the middle of the gap,
and ice may have paved the whole way at the time. The Aleutian Islands
have also been suggested as a route of migration, but the chain of islands
is long, and the gap at the western end of about a hundred miles would
have required skilful negotiation. Whether there was a land bridge so far
south of the Bering Straits is questionable because of the ocean depths of
ten to twenty thousand feet. Long before, in geological antiquity, there
was a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska which horses, camels, cattle,
elephants, deer, and other species had crossed. This, however, does not
explain human migration, for man’s entry belongs to a much later period
when the two continents had probably separated.

‘There are just as many conflicting opinions about the Bering Straits
theory as any other. Arguments in favour of the theory are: many
Asiomericans share physical characteristics with North Asians; even
today there is some migration between northeastern Asia and the extreme
tip of northwestern Alaska; and, distinctively Asian dialects are spoken by
many Alaskan and northwestern American tribes. Examples of arguments
against this theory are: the physical characteristics of it race are likely
to be altered by environment, or admixture of blood with other races if
encountered during the course of migration; not all Indians of North,
Central, and South America possess Mongoloid or North Asian features;
the Asian dialects disappear completely as soon as one goes far from the
northwestern coast tribes.

Widely distributed over the vast continent, Asiomericans show
considerable ethnic diyersity. Generally speaking, Asiomericans
yellowish or reddish brown in skin-colour, and usually have coatse blac
hair, broad faces with prominent cheek-bones, and often a well-develop 7
chin. They are described broadly as Mongoloids, but they are a comp care
: mace Whilst they have some characteristic Mongoloid features, they

Jack others. For example, the pigmentation of their skin, usually darket

a through Migrations across

470

SSRN IES ST

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

than that of the Asians and sometimes more reddish than yellow, their
hair-form, and their facial size are Mongoloid, but the Mongoloid eye-
fold appears only occasionally. Their eyes do not slant. Their browridges
are often well-developed, whilst the Mongoloid forehead is typically
smooth. The nose of any American Indian is very rarely as flat as that of
a typical Mongoloid; it may be hooked, straight, or sometimes concave.
‘The hawk-nose of so many of the Asiomericans is, in fact, recognized
as inherently Aryan, associated with the races of the Iranian plateau.
Asiomerican types have also been identified with the Dravidians of the
Indus Valley. There is concrete evidence to support the belief that many
of the early American peoples were of Indo-European stock. For instance,
the Toltecs, apart from various references to bearded white gods, were,
as Edward Tylor has pointed out, large of stature and fair in complexion.
In contrast, the Aztecs of later times were small and dark.

Again, the Sirionos of Bolivia, an isolated, primitive tribe with slightly
wavy, fine hair and great bushy beards, who bear no resemblances at
all to any other known Asiomerican tribe, resemble Polynesians. Also
amongst nearly all the tribes of western South America are found
words—not one or two but scores—which are strikingly like and, in
many cases identical with, words of the same meanings in Oceanian
dialects. In some of their arts, habits, and religious beliefs there is a great
similarity between the Polynesians and the Asiomericans of western
South America. The evidence of blood grouping would indicate kinship
between the Asiomericans of North America and Polynesians. They
share a relatively high incidence of M, and they also share some of the
highest known frequencies of the rhesus gene cDE. This similarity may
imply transpacific contact.

In the 1930's, Baron Erland Nordenskiold noted numerous cultural
traits—forty-nine to be exact—common to both South America and
the Pacific islands. This could have been due either to accidental or
deliberate migrations from Polynesia to America, or simply to parallel
and independent growth. It is significant, however, that four-fifths of
these common traits were found in Colombia and Panama, the precise
areas where Polynesian sailors would land if they were drifting with the
Equatorial Counter-current.

471

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

This evidence would seem to support the view tha
course of the uncounted thousands of years, success
immigrants spread over the two continents of America. The Migrants
had clearly been filtering across Asia and had added to their
characteristics—Eurafrican or Dravidian or Tranian—traits which they
shared with the Mongols. Gladwin, pointing out that the Americas are
populated by many different kinds of men, recounts no less than five
successive migratory waves of Pygmies, Australoid Negroid, Mongoloid
and Melanesian-Polynesian peoples to America.

t during the
ive Waves of

Tespective

At the time of the discovery of America, there were perhaps thirty
million Asiomericans distributed over the two Americas, comprising
more than six hundred distinct societies. Hence, it would require far
more time than is usually allowed for a few nomadic people to multiply,
develop an ethnic admixture, spread from the Arctic Circle to Cape
Horn, and to give rise to the diversity of tribes, dialects, customs, and
beliefs found amongst the original inhabitants of America.

As THE INQUIRY into the cultural past of ancient America has to rely
heavily on anthropological data, its students have come to reflect the
controversies that divide anthropologists. Broadly speaking, cultural
historians of Asiomerica are divided into two camps, “diffusionists” and
“evolutionists.” The former believe in an early diffusion of Asian and
Pacific culture through America, whilst the latter assert the independent
and local development of the American-Indian culture. Inevitably both
sides have their relentless and uncompromising champions many of
whom, by reversing the process of historical scrutiny, mould evidence p
fit their conclusions, rather than draw conclusions from actual material
‘There are some extremely plausible arguments on both sides ae
appears that more and more material is coming to light reinforcing 1°
diffusionist theory.

According to the evolutionist, man, being a creative animal, a X
invent in one place as easily as he can in another. And under I d
Circumstances and needs, and at similar cultural levels, widely ieee

; men can produce similar inventions. Hence, identity in achievements E “a
_ evidence of cultural borrowing. The diffusionists accept the ae es
this assertion, but g0 a good deal further in interpretation.

472

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

argue that whilst coincidences are possible, identical complex inventions
in details of common cultural trends cannot be purely coincidental. In any
case, for every instance of parallelism, many more of diffusion—almost
in the ratio of one to a hundred—can be traced in history.

In the second half of the nineteenth century ideas based on Adolf
Bastian’s concept of the Elementargedanke, psychic unity of mankind,
captured the imagination of anthropologists. Whilst Bastian recognized
the importance of geographical conditions on the development of
culture, he did not ascribe any creative power to them; they could only
modify a culture, not create one. Hence, he explained the sameness of
thought in widely separated lands as due to the similarity of the psychic
structure of man the world over. However, the evolutionists appear to
have disregarded Bastian’s stress on the similarity in elementary ideas
and on his admission that at a higher stage contact with other cultures
might constitute a superior external stimulus. As they interpreted this
theory, the psychic unity, together with the similarity of circumstances
in which culture tends to develop, was bound to lead to parallel and
independent developments which produced similar or even identical
results. Even the most highly complex beliefs and myths were regarded
as natural products of the human mind. The underlying thought of these
conceptions was that the manifestation of ethnic life represents a time
series, which progresses from simple beginnings to complex modern
civilization.

The publication of The Origin of Species in 1859 and the popularity
of Charles Darwin’s concept of evolution also had repercussions on the
writing of cultural history. Cultural historians borrowed the concept of
evolution from ethnologists, who in turn had borrowed it from biology
and applied it, somewhat indiscriminately, to cultural phenomena. In
their zeal to make use of new-found knowledge, nineteenth century
anthoropologists failed to reflect sufficiently on the capacity of man, as
of all living beings, as Darwin himself had pointed out, to respond to
changing environmental conditions and to improve his position. Only
now has anthropological inquiry begun to note the concepts of function
and adaptation. Broadly speaking, evolutionist historians applied the
theory of evolution to culture in the same way as it is applied to biological
Organisms; one form grows out of another. Elaborate arts, complex

473

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

institutions, and abstruse knowledge were held to
development from an earlier and simpler form.

‘The earliest pioneers of cultural evolutionism, Herbert Spe
Edward Tylor, and Morgan, however, were somewh
to Darwin, although their ideas gathered force
published his thesis. In 1852, Spencer had published a Paper,
Development Hypothesis, a brilliant defence of the theory of organic
evolution which laid the beginnings of cultural evolutionism. Edward
Tylor pioneered cultural evolutionism in Britain and introduced the
term culture into anthropological literature as a specific technical term,
He was, however, always willing to concede transmission of cultural
traits if he were satisfied with the evidence. Franz Boas (1858-1942),
whilst accepting the validity of the concept of evolution in biology,
was opposed to its application to cultural history. He could not accept
the contention that cultural similarities were the outcome of identical
Processes, because it was based on the assumption that the human
mind behaves identically everywhere. He had wide support amongst
fellow anthropologists.

England was the main home of evolutionist theories and, despite
its far-flung empire, it remained partial to its island mentality and
isolationist theories long after the weight of opinion had moved ey
from evolutionism elsewhere, Whilst on the Continent evolutionist
concepts had been considerably discredited by the last quarter of the
last century, it was not until 1911 that W. H. Rivers, a leading British
exponent of evolutionism, announced his conversion to diffusionism.
Since then evolutionist concepts, which were found very conven! ent
by writers seeking to fan nationalist-purism, have lost much of their
impact, although the discussion has by no means ended either amongst
ethnologists or historians. With some exceptions, mainly in pomi
most historians today seem to agree with V. Gordon Childe in ouai
a clear distinction between cultural evolution and biological evolution
and oppose notions of total parallelism in cultural growth." Bon

‘The opposition to the isolationist theory gained credence in 19 F.
when two eminent scholars, Robert Heine-Geldern and Gordon :
Ekholm, presented overwhelmi g evidence of innumerable ‘Asian-Pacific
PSE similarities before the Congress of Americanists at New Yor

be the results of gradual

Neer,
at anterior
after Darwin had

474

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

The theory of identically independent cultural development in distant
lands can be, as it has often been, taken too far. Like any other people,
Asiomericans, no doubt, have made original contributions to civilization,
such as rubber and numerous foods, including the development of tapioca
from a poisonous root called manioc, but it is a very different matter
to independently duplicate those inventions previously made in other
parts of the world. It seems almost unbelievable that the evolutionists
are prepared to concede to Asiomericans what is not conceded to the
inhabitants of the British Isles nor to Europeans in general. No serious
and non-partisan scholar today credits prehistoric Europe with having
independently invented the wheel, bronze-casting, writing, pottery,
weaving, and similarly important innovations. Europe borrowed them
from Asia. Thus, whilst Europe invented with the assistance of Asian
experience and heritage, ancient America is not supposed to have
borrowed from or been influenced by anyone else. What is still more
baffling is the premise that a series of complex techniques, such as casting
by the lost wax method, the extraction of tin from cassiterite, the alloying
of copper and tin, the colouring of gold by chemical processes, weaving,
tie-dying, and batik could have been invented twice, independently of
each other, in two different areas of the world.

Whilst the diffusionist theory has been gaining popular support, there
is no conclusive evidence to dissuade the isolationist or evolutionist.
Whatever evidence there is, is fragmentary, insufficient, and mainly in the
form of parallels between the cultures of Asia and ancient America. But
these parallels are so many and so close in detail, that the theory of contact
and exchange is quite logical. Many of these similarities, identified as
emanating from a single source, belong to much later periods, cutting
well into historical times, and suggest that periodic migrations from Asia
to America continued to take place until the first century, and possibly
later. Many of the Asian parallels with America are of Indian origin. As
direct migration from India has not been suggested, it is claimed that
diffusion of Indian ideas and cultural traits took place through the media
of China and especially Southeast Asia.

The first Asians to travel to America during prehistoric times were
perhaps East Asians. The archaeological work done since 1961 on the
Pacific Coast at Valdivia in Ecuador, by scholars such as Emilio Estrada,

475

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Betty J. Meggers, and Clifford Evans, has added considerably to th
documentation of similarities between South America and eastern Ae,
and suggests that the Japanese crossed the Pacific in a
Pottery made by shellfish-gathering people of Ecuador and that of Japan
(Honshu island)—both belonging to the same period of preh
between 3000 and 2000 8.c.—are very similar. Whilst Valdivian Pottery
is different from other early Asiomerican artifacts and archaeological
finds, it is very close to the pottery from the Jomon period of Japan which
would suggest Japanese landings in Ecuador. Other items, belonging
to a much later period, the last two centuries B.C., include pottery,
house models with certain alien architectural features, neck rests, seated
figurines, symmetrically graduated Pan pipes, net weights, ear ornaments,
coolie yokes, and sea-going rafts with centreboards.

‘The first Asians to travel to America during historical times were
possibly the Chinese, as is suggested by some of the sculptures of the
Chavin culture, the oldest of the higher civilizations of Peru. This most
ancient site of all the American civilizations discovered so far, was not
found until 1941. It was discovered by Julio C. Tello, the Asiomerican
archaeologist, and derived its name from Chavin de Huantar in the
north Peruvian highlands. Chavin sculptures show motifs which closely
correspond to those found only in China of the ninth and eighth century
B.C. (848 B.c. + 167 years), which corresponds exactly with the date of
the Chavin culture as determined by the Carbon-14 method.

‘There was no prior local tradition, no bridge or direct transition fr om
an earlier beginning to explain satisfactorily the evolution of this era
of Chavin culture. It appeared suddenly, embracing the whole of Ree
and producing works of art that were inspired by profound ae
feeling. Maize (radio carbon dating 714 s.c. + 200 years) and n
ceramics for ceremonial use also appeared in Peru during this p oe
Traces of metal (gold only) and weaving appeared for the first time ed
South America during this period. The art of the goldsmith ae
metallurgical techniques, such as hammering, embossing, anne ee,
welding, soldering, Strap joining, incising, champleve, and ane
à designs. Erom where did these techniques suddenly emerge? jifford
Scholars such as Heine-Geldern suspect a Chinese link, Vale and C loc

vans suggest Central America, and Julio C. Tello favours its 1

prehistoric times,

istory,

476

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

evolution. Archaeological investigations on this site have to be carried
farther before puzzling questions can be, if at all, resolved.

The art of the following period, the Salinar culture at El Salinar in
Chicarna Valley, again contains motifs that correspond with those of
seventh and sixth centuries B.c. China. Chinese influences probably
came from the ancient eastern states of Wu, in the lower part of the
Yangtze Valley, and Yueh, in modern Chekiang. After some interruption,
presumably caused by the unsettled conditions in China, it appears that
Asians resumed migratory voyages from the coasts of Vietnam and
traces of Dong-son culture are far more numerous in South America
than those of Chinese influence. These migrations, possibly, came to an
end with the conquest of Tonkin and north Annam by China during
the first century.

It appears that the vacuum created by the disappearance of Vietnamese
and Chinese transpacific voyages to South America was filled by the
Indianized peoples of Southeast Asia. This view has gained strength
from the recent researches of Heine-Geldern and Ekholm. They
have unearthed astonishing parallels in architecture and art, religious
symbols, cosmological theories, government institutions and royal
courts, insignia of kings and dignitaries, and even games. The contacts
between Cambodia and the Maya and Olmec areas seem to have been
particularly close from the seventh to the tenth century and it is likely
that they more or less continued until the fall of the Kambuja Empire
before the Thai incursions.

Indeed, the parallels between the arts and culture of India and those
of ancient America are too numerous and close to be attributed to
independent growth. A variety of art forms are common to Mexico, India,
Java, and Indo-China, the most striking of which are the Teocallis, the
pyramids, with receding stages, faced with cut stone, and with stairways
leading to a stone sanctuary on top. Many share surprisingly common
features such as serpent columns and banisters, vaulted galleries and
corbeled arches, attached columns, stone cut-out lattices, and Atlantean
figures; these are typical of the Puuc style of Yucatan. Heine-Geldern and
Ekholm point out that temple pyramids in Cambodia did not become
important until the ninth and tenth centuries, a time coinciding with
the beginning of the Puuc period. The use of half columns flanking the

477

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

doors and of groups of small columns set in panels is chara

x ey Cteristic of
both the Cambodian and Mayan civilizations. Atlantean fi

Sures, which
appeared in India in the second century B.c., are found at Tula in Central

Mexico and Chichen Itza in the tropical forest of Yucatan,

‘The oldest Mayan city to be excavated was Uaxactun, where the first
Mayan observatory was found, and also the oldest Mayan fresco, Quite
near Uaxactun was the city Tikal, where archaeologists have found
colossal mounds of rubble and immense buildings, including five of the
steepest pyramids that have ever been seen; the tallest rose to a height
of two hundred and thirty feet with the temple standing at the very top,
Similar towering, narrow pyramids are found in the ancient Cambodian
city, Angkor Thom.

Mayan art reached its highest point in the cities of Yaxchilan,
Palenque, and Piedras Negras. Numerous pyramids and sculptures
have been excavated there. One of the best pieces of Mayan sculpture
in the pyramid temple of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, appears to bea
Buddhist scene. The subject matter of the scene is not clear but the theme
is somewhat alien to Mexican art tradition. It bears remarkable likeness
to a Jataka bas-relief of the Borobudur stupa in Central Java, and the
technique of placing the figures at several levels in the composition is
also very similar to the one used in Borobudur.

‘The buildings of Chichen Itza show certain influences from Southeast
Asia; for example, the lotus motif occurs in the Mercado (covered market)
at Chichen Itza. As a vaulted gallery, closed by a wall on one side and
with pillars along the other, the Mercado is strikingly reminiscent of
the galleries so typical of the Cambodian architecture that eventually
blossomed into the galleries of Angkor Vat, dated about the middle
of the twelfth century—the precise time that the Mercado and similar
buildings at Chichen Itza were built. What is more significant is that
the gradual development of these galleries follows very much the sume
pattern in both Cambodia and the northern Mayan region.

The lotus motif, interspersed with seated human figures, which sa
deep symbolic meaning in Hindu and Buddhist mythologies andas Aa
is an integral part of early Indian art, especially of Amaravati, is A le
Chichen Itza as a border in the reliefs of the lower room of the Temp ;

_of Tigers. The lotus plant in Indian art, as reproduced on architrav’

= 478

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

and in border designs, shows not only the flowers and leaves, but the
whole plant, including the rhizome, a kind of root-like stalk which
grows horizontally under water or deeply buried in the mud. Whilst the
flowers and leaves generally resemble their natural forms, the rhizome
is represented by a decorative undulating creeper. This occurs in the
art at Chichen Itza. If these two representations are not connected in
some way, it must be an extraordinary coincidence that in India as well
as in ancient America the generally invisible rhizome should have been
not only made the basic element of a whole motif but also stylized in a
similarly unrealistic manner.

Again, as in the early Indian art, the lotus motif at Chichen Itza is used
as a border around an imaginary landscape and as a frame for other motifs
such as the human figures. Even the figures’ postures and movements are
similar to those in India. Whilst the figures naturally differ in racial type
and in costume, the motif is essentially the same. The similarity between
the art of Amaravati and that of Chichen Itza is particularly noticeable
in reclining figures holding on to the rhizome of the lotus.

In Indian art the lotus rhizome frequently protrudes from the mouths
of makaras, sea monsters with fish-like bodies and elephant-like trunks.
At Chichen Itza, stylized figures of fish are found at both ends of the lotus
plant, in the same position as the makaras in India. “Such a combination
of highly specific details cannot be accidental. It suggests the existence
of some kind of relationship between Maya art and not only Buddhist
art in general, but the school of Amaravati of the second century A.D.
in particular.”

If the gap of almost a thousand years between the Amaravati period
and Chichen Itza appears long, it is because evidence of the connecting
links has not survived. In any case, it is not uncommon for decorative or
symbolic motifs to survive even longer. Furthermore, the lotus occurs
in Mayan art in the middle of the Classic period, several hundred years
earlier than the date of the Chichen Itza reliefs. It is also a reasonable
assumption that wooden sculptures and buildings, which have not
Survived, existed in Central America and carried on the tradition of this
motif. There is evidence of wood carving amongst the Aztecs and there
is little reason to believe it was not equally important in earlier times.

Eventually the lotus motifin both India and Southeast Asia assumed

479

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

new forms: totally unrealistic, purely decorative designs of foliage-ti,
scrolls. It then merged with another motif, Rirttimukha, cone
features of the lion, the death’s head (Aa/a) and the serpent o ë
which appears in the Gupta art of India. The new
first time in the Pallava art of the seventh century, became a favourite
in Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia and Bali. In Cambodia, the
creepers with ornamental foliage which had replaced the lotus are
frequently seen on door lintels of the period between the ninth and the
eleventh centuries, surging from both sides of the mouth of a demonic
face without lower jaw, a mythical sea monster with a fish’s body and
an elephant’s trunk. Lotus rhizomes extending from both sides of the
mouth of a demonic face without lower jaw occur also at Chichen Itza,
‘This similar use of the lotus motif not only indicates cultural intercourse
between South Asia and America, but also suggests that it lasted well
after the seventh century.

‘The makara motif, a makara head with upturned snout and with
a human face in its mouth, from India, Java, Bali, and Sumatra, is
comparable to the Mexican Xiuhcoatl, the so-called fire-serpent found at
Palenque. Whilst this fire-serpent of Mayan art and its Aztec counterpart
differ from the numerous more realistic representations of reptiles of ie
same areas, they correspond in many details, such as fish-like bodies,
elephant-like trunks and forms of the teeth, to the makara. In Indian and
Mayan art variants with paws occur, which resemble a crocodile rather
than a fish, and in both regions a human figure often emerges from the
mouth of the monster. 4

The makara and kirttimukha are the most frequent motifs on ancient
and mediaeval temples in and outside India, and seem to have ay
widespread popularity abroad in both the East and the West- RT
K. Coomaraswamy pointed out in a study of Indian iconogr aphy Ti g
that the makara occurred frequently in mediaeval European es kha
before him, in 1875, E. Viollet-le-Duc suggested that the kirttimu a
occurred at Poitiers, a twelfth-century Romanesque cathedral, but ;
scholars took notice of this assertion. Recently, a director of the a
Art Museum has pointed out further examples: “There can be little oo
that Coomaraswamy was correct, while Viollet-le-Duc’s Dee
that the kirttimukha occurred at Poitiers was an understate™

í t dragon,
form, found for the

480

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

While makara and kirttimukha forms appear on the majority of French
and Spanish Churches built in the 12th century, earlier Romanesque
Churches were not decorated with such designs.” This makara motif
seems to have been incorporated into the Chinese dragon concept.
Islamic structures, such as the old Talisman gate at Baghdad, have also
preserved variations of the kirttimukha. This motif was probably taken
to England from France by the Plantagenets, and a motif known as
the “Green Man” which appears on the Romanesque churches of some
twenty-three English counties is thus ultimately of Indian origin.

The reputed “Cross” of Palenque, a stylized tree with a demonic face in
its branches, appears to be a copy of the Ka/pa-Vrksa, depicted In Indian
sculpture as growing on the cosmic Mount Sumeru. The Javanese version
of this tree, as seen in the Wayang kulit, with a demon’s face between the
beams of a cross, resembles the Mexican Cross. The motif also appears
in a highly conventionalized form amongst the reliefs of the Angkor Vat
in Cambodia. Porches with figures of monsters, lotus walls, and a “cross-
shaped-holy-arch” have been discovered in the temples of Palenque, as in
the temples of Cambodia, where the holy-arch was particularly common
from the eighth to the tenth centuries.

Ancient American sites have revealed a galaxy of teocallis, despite
the fact that many were demolished by European invaders. These
pyramids are of various sizes and belong to different periods. Many
of them escaped the onslaught of the intruders because they had been
swallowed up by the jungles, thus remaining disguised until discovered
by archaeologists. The ruins of Teotihuacan remained more or less
unnoticed until the beginning of this century, even though they were not
hidden by the jungle. Teotihuacan, meaning “the place where gods were
made,” was supposedly the most glorious and ancient city of Mexico.
The two world-famous teocallis of the Sun (Tonatiuh) and the Moon
(Meztli) have been excavated on this site. These pyramids are surrounded
by numerous smaller pyramids. A number of scholars have suggested
that the inspiration for these teocallis came from Egypt, but American
Pyramids are very unlike those of Egypt; it may even be a misnomer to
describe them as pyramids. The teocallis of ancient America are really
Step-pyramids, in which several rectangular terraces, each of diminishing
ize, are built on top of one another, with an outside stairway leading up

481

Makara from Amaravati (a) and makara from Chichen Itza (b); the lotus-
motif from Amaravati (c) and the lotus-motif from Chichen Itza (d).
After R. Heine-Geldern and G. E Ekholm.

God on the lion throne from In
After R. Heine-Geldern and G. E Ekholm.

dia (e), and Mayan jaguar throne (f)-

482

a ee
S LEENE A |e
WY ge ae

COS
Jaf ty“
SY ave

T Tree of Heaven in shadow play figure from Jave (a), and the so-called

4 ross” from Palenque, Mexico (b).
aes Heine-Geldern and G. F Ekholm.

483

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

to the platform. The Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan has four such

the temple at Tulahas has five. At the top is a temple for which the rest

terr aces;

of the pyramid merely serves a base, or a plinth. The Egypti
had neither platforms nor temples at the top and there w
outside. Certainly, until later times their side wall

an pyramids
as no stairway

s were plain. The
interior chamber, in which the bones of the Pharaoh were entombed
)

was reached by a low passage through the stone, which was sealed with
earth after the entombment of the king. But the American pyramid is
similar to the temple-pyramids of Cambodia, and is reminiscent of a
prevalent concept in the Hindu-Buddhist world. It expresses the idea
of erecting an artificial mountain, like the Indian Mount Sumeru, the
Mountain ascending to Heaven.

There are however certain difficulties about the chronology of the
pyramids of Southeast Asia and Mexico. The earliest American pyramids
are older than the earliest similar pyramids known in Southeast Asia. For
instance, the temple-pyramids of Cambodia date from the eighth century,
and the Sun Pyramids of Teotihuacan, despite the difficulty of obtaining
reliable radio carbon dates and taking into account the additions and
alterations made from time to time, possibly had its earliest foundations
laid in the second century B.C. Whilst there may be certain difficulties in
satisfactorily setting out the similarities between the temple-pyramids of
Cambodia and those of Mexican-Mayan areas, there are none in respect
to other parallels. Nor are there any chronological discrepancies in the
case of the Southeast Asian parallels in the Mercado at Chichen Itza.

Ancient Indian chronology is still subject to dispute, and any
theories about Indian influences travelling across the Pacific io
America must remain somewhat tentative. However, it seems that this
cultural intercourse between Southeast Asia and America took place
intermittently during the first six centuries of the Christian era. (ini
evidence from the Southeast Asian side would suggest the most likely
period to be from the third to the fifth centuries, American wee,
suggests that contact must have taken place not later than the middle 9.

the classic period of Central America, since some Hindu-Buddhist taS
appear in the Maya area at that time. This does not, however, preclude a"
earlier date. The lotus designs of Chichen Itza would bear testimony ©
cultural exchange during the first half of the first millennium. Atiante®

484

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

figures and the motif of gods standing on crouching human figures may
belong to the same time.

The makara motif may have been introduced more than once over
3 prolonged period. Indeed, a more detailed comparison of the various
forms in which it appears in different regions may yield valuable
chronological clues. At any rate, the combined motifs of the makara and
the lotus would seem to indicate contacts in the period from the ninth
to the twelfth century. And the similarities between the buildings of the
Puuc style and Cambodian temples, particularly those of Isvarapura,
would reinforce the evidence of contact around the tenth century. Finally,
the Mercado at Chichen Itza reflects characteristics of Cambodian
galleries of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

There are indications that Java and possibly Sumatra and Champa may
have participated in transpacific contacts with America but Asiomerican
parallels with Cambodia are much closer. The ports from which the traffic
was carried on must have been located on the coast of what now is Vietnam,
a region Cambodia lost to her neighbours in the eighteenth century. Long
before that, however, after a period of unprecedented political power
and cultural achievements around 1200, the collapse of the Cambodian
Empire must have caused the cessation of transpacific voyages.

There is little material available to enable historians to visualize
even the broad lines of ancient American thought. Their astronomical
calculations give some indication of their concept of the universe, but
they reveal little of their gods and their religious system. However,
similarities between the gods and temples of Central America and
those of India are far too striking not to compel consideration, even if
adequate allowance is made for the fact that some kind of polytheism
had existed in all primitive societies, and gods were conceived of in all
shapes and sizes by primitive men. Ancient America was as rich in gods
ee as was India. The Asiomerican term for god, “teo”, is close

æ Sanskrit “deva.” E, G. Squire noted similarities in both major and
man us of Buddhist temples of South India and ee He
wes ae ancient America. Both in ancient India a ae =

A ` and different colours were used on each r fouy ea
ancient y iollet-le-Duc pointed out some striking si arities
exican structures and those of southern India.

485

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The similarity extends also to their gods. The parallels between the
Hindu Brahma-Visnu-Siva Trinity and the Mexican Ho-Huitzilopochtli-
Tlaloc Trinity, and the resemblances between the attributes of certain
Hindu deities and those of the Mayan pantheon are impressive,
Discussing the diffusion of Indian religions to Mexico, a recent scholar,
Paul Kirchhoff, has even suggested that it is not simply a question of
miscellaneous influences wandering from one country to the other, but
that China, India, Java, and Mexico actually share a common system."
Kirchhoff has sought “to demonstrate that a calendaric classification of
28 Hindu gods and their animals into twelve groups, subdivided into
four blocks within each of which we find a sequence of gods and animals
representing Creation, Destruction, and Renovation, and which can be
shown to have existed both in India and Java, must have been carried
from the Old World to the New, since in Mexico we find calendaric
lists of gods and animals (or their substitutes) that follow each other
without interruption in the same order and with attributes and functions
or meanings strikingly similar to those of the 12 Indian and Javanese
groups of gods, showing the same four subdivisions.”

There is some similarity between the iconography of American gods
and Hindu and Buddhist art motifs. The disc of the sun as a quoit, the
mussel shell with a plant, and the figures of Visnu, who despite his
Mexican features, is so recognized from the mace (Gada) and Cakra that
he holds in his two hands, appear on both sides of the Pacific. Moreover,
the Mayas used the umbrella as a mark of dignity and a symbol of rank,
and the umbrella comes from Southeast Asia, where it was known in the
third millennium s.c. The friezes of Chacmultun in Yucatan exhibit two
types of umbrellas like those still used in India and Southeast Asia. The
Mayan goddess, Ix Tub Tun, who spits out precious stones, pee
attributes of an Indian nagini of Kubera, the Indian god of treasure.

E. B. Tylor showed in a lecture in 1894 the four Mexican pictures,
known as The Vatican Codex, that corresponded so closely to the pictur
of Buddhist hells or purgatories painted on Japanese temple scrolls, as W
“preclude any explanation except direct transmission from one religiot

3 0
to another.”"* He also found the counterparts of the tortoise myth
India in ancient America.

‘The Toltecs achieved greatness mainly because of the inspiration he)

486

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

derived from their white-bearded legendary god-man, Quetzalcoatl, who
Was exceptional in moral virtues, loved the sciences, was the source ofall
agricultural prosperity, and the inventor of all arts. His two institutions,
priesthood and princedom, were the foundations of all Aztec social and
religious life, creating a new religious concept of a higher spirituality.
The historical reality of Quetzalcoatl is somewhat obscure.!? The myth
of Quetzalcoatl has been described as having its basis in a belief in a
rain-and-wind god who brought fructifying showers to the dry earth of
Mexico. Later, a number of stories and legends grew about him and he
was credited with powers of wisdom and the attributes of a hero. Yet
his humility, his burning need for self-purification, and emphasis on
achieving mystic union with divinity through a life of contemplation,
chastity, and penitence, could not have sprung from a society which,
like that of the Aztecs, was given to armed conquests and bloodshed.
Quetzalcoatl is said to have lived a rigorous life of abstinence in his
palace, oriented towards the four points of the Universe, practicing
several types of penance. Above all he devoted himself to meditation, mo-
teotia, to conceive the supreme God and all that exists. It has, therefore,
been suggested that behind Quetzalcoatl was Buddhist inspiration.
Considering that the tradition of the Toltec beliefs is posterior to the
Buddhist expansion in Southeast and East Asia, and to the fresh waves
of migrants from Asia, particularly from Indo-China, It is quite likely
that some Hindu-Buddhist thought had crept into Toltec beliefs.”
In fact, it was about the beginning of the Christian era, referred to
S the classical period, that evidence appears of new ways of thinking
im ancient America as well as fresh migrations from Asia. It would be
“tremely unlikely if these two were not connected. The new migrants
are described as a people with a high degree of culture, possessing books
a r Si and song, and worshipping a Sureine oS a Ka
i ie e Everywhere (Tloque-Nahuaque) ae a meee
cosmic co metiol), Master and Mistress of our fles , who in a myst is
upling and conception, has given origin to all that exists.
‘ ee God caused the birth of his four god-sons, o
ce ee 2 forces which were to generate the history of vee
Were deri ese myths and beliefs that several of their princip ie
ed. “The beliefin a supreme dual principle mother and father

487

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of the gods and of man, as well as a concept of the world with the four
corners of the universe, their characteristic colours, the four elements,
the heavenly tiers and the nether world of the dead, are undoubtedly
analogous to some concepts in the civilizations of India, China, and
Tibet. Are these simply parallelisms, or did there exist in ancient times
some kind of cultural dissemination ?”” According to Leon-Portilla, a
definitive answer cannot be formulated as yet. But he reminds those who
are inclined towards the idea of cultural dissemination of the inexplicable
absence of such cultural elements as the practical use of the wheel, the
concept of weight and the development of balance scales, amongst other
things, in the pre-Columbian world. Besides, it cannot be ignored that
the innate capacities of all human beings make them apply relatively
similar solutions to similar problems.”
Mackenzie and some other scholars, however, are of the definite
opinion that the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians were familar with
Indian mythology and cite in support close parallels in details. For
instance, the history of the Mayan elephant symbol cannot be traced in
the local tradition, whereas it was a prominent religious symbol in India.
Itis not a motif imported from Egypt, for there are divergences between
the African elephant and the American representation of it. The African
elephant has larger ears, a less-elevated head and a bulging forehead
without the indentation at the root of the trunk, which is characteristic
of the Indian elephant. It is the profile of the Indian elephant, its tusk
and lower lip, the form of its ear, as well as its turbaned rider with his
ankus, which is found in Meso-American models. Whilst the African
elephant was of little religious significance, it had been tamed in India
and associated with religious practice since the early days. The elephant
was associated with the Nagas, snake deities, who were rain-gods “wholly
dependent on the presence of water and much afraid of fire, just like
the dragons in many Chinese and Japanese legends.” The Nagas es
regarded as the guardians of treasures, especially of pearls, and there iS a
good deal of additional evidence that the cults of Nagas and elephants”
India had overlapped frequently. The religious significance of the elephant
is typically Indian and there appears to be little doubt that the Mayan
representation is similarly religious. Mayan elephants are represen
with the conventional ornamentation of the elephant-like figures OF

488

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

pas-reliefs in Cambodia. Even Bancroft, who did not subscribe to the
theory of contact between Indian and American mythologies, thought
the elephant motif deserved attention.

A kind of caste system prevailed amongst the Incas of Peru. Peruvians
worshipped an omnipotent and invisible Supreme Being, Viracocha,
creator and preserver of the world. Imprints of the Ramayana and the’
Mahabharata have been noticed on the poetry of Peru. The American
story of Yappan resembles the story of Indra of the Mahabharata so
closely that Mackenzie comments that with this piece of evidence alone a
good circumstantial case can be made for the diffusion of Hindu thought,
myths, and practices to ancient America.

The Mexican doctrine of the World’s Ages—the universe was
destroyed four consecutive times—is reminiscent of the Indian Yugas.
Even the reputed colours of these mythical four ages, white, yellow, red,
and black, are identical with and in the same order as one of the two
versions of the Indian Yugas. In both myths the duration of the First Age
is exactly the same, 4,800 divine years. The Mexican Trinity is associated
with this doctrine as is the Hindu Trinity with the Yugas in India.”

Only four chemical elements were known to the peoples of ancient
Greece and India. They were earth, water, fire, and air. The Hindus, in
the Bhagavad Gita, describe the four ages of the world as corresponding
to the four points of the compass, and they were the ages of earth,
Water, fire, and air. The Mayas divided each of their four ages into five
periods, with each period ruled by a god. These are the twenty gods of
the Mayan myths and they provide names for the twenty days of the
Mayan months. In this way the Mayan calendar is somewhat akin to the
Hindu Yugas. The Mayas distinguished between thirteen heavens, each
wled by a god; the lowest was earth. Below earth were nine underworlds
with nine head gods; the lowest of these underworlds was ruled by the
80d of Death, Ahpuk.
ee oe insist that pre-Columbian American hae a
ae > ae of independent ongin aise obliged © hen eae
features at & = nS = ae a a te from the

atad e very beginning, whilst in Asia they oe ae
Bete movements of numerous peoples after a peno Neste
n that covered by American civilizations from beginning to

489

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

end. ‘The isolationists must also explain why the American race should
have been the last to emerge from an uncivilized state and why, once they
emerged, their progress should have been so phenomenally rapid,

Considering the missionary zeal and religious enterprise of Indian
monks and priests, it would seem unlikely that they would have missed
an opportunity to spread their respective religions. The traces of Hindu-
Buddhist influence in Mexico and amongst the Maya correspond in kind
precisely to those cultural elements which were introduced by Buddhist
monks and Hindu priests in Southeast Asia. If Indian religions were
not found in Central America at the time of the Spanish conquest, this
cannot by itself be held as evidence that they had not existed at an earlier
date. ‘The history, especially of Southeast Asia, shows how easily religions
may disappear or be submerged in local cults. Amongst the Cham of
Annam, Hinduism and Buddhism had been firmly established for almost
a millennium and a half, from the second to the fifteenth century. Yet,
Buddhism disappeared completely after the fall of the Cham kingdom
in 1471 and Hinduism declined so rapidly that its influence at present is
hardly recognizable. Amongst the non-Muslim Badui and Tenggerese
of Java, traces of Hinduism and Buddhism are exceedingly slight,
although these must have been the predominant religions as late as the
sixteenth century. The Batak of Sumatra were under Buddhist and Hindu
influences from probably the third to the fourteenth century, but in the
nineteenth century they were pagans. “We have little doubt that a sober
but unbiased comparative analysis of the Mexican and Mayan religions
will reveal many traces of the former influences of either Hinduism oF
Buddhism or of both. To mention but one instance, the conceptions of
hell and of the punishments inflicted there resemble those of Buddhist
and Hindu belief to such an extent, both in a general way and in sp ace
details, that the assumption of historic relationship is almost inevitable.
It is, however, interesting that whilst in Mexico and amongst i
Mayas, traits of apparent Hindu-Buddhist origin abound in the fields
of art, religious architecture, government, cosmology, mythology, ™
iconography, there is hardly any Indian influence in the technical fields
Whatever little there is appears to have been the by-product of artistic
and religious beliefs.

Parallels between the Pan-pipes of the Solomon Islands and thos? os

<= 490 -

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM. . :

South America are indeed startling. The Pan-pipe is a primitive wind
instrument mythologically associated with the goat-footed Greek god
Pan. But here are pipes which are pre-Columbian, and have tone and pitch
identical with their Polynesian counterparts. The odd pipes differ, each
from the next, by the interval of a fourth. The even pipes have notes half-way
in pitch between the odd ones, and thus form another “circle of fourths.”
What is more significant is that the absolute pitch of the instruments
examined from both areas is the same. Consequently, the vibration rates
in successive pipes are 557 and 560.5; 651 and 651; 759 and 749; 880
and 879: too close to be within the bounds of accidental convergence.
Elliot Smith, who had lived in Egypt for years working as a professor of
anatomy, and who was a British diffusionist, points out that Asiomericans
and East Asians practiced the same method of mumification. Some
scholars have noted other parallels between the symbols, postures, dress,
and etiquette of Indian and Southeast Asian royalty and those of Mexico
and Peru. It is pointed out that the four queens of the last Ayar ruler
performed sazi after the latter had been killed by the Spaniards. The
Mexican Lion-throne and Lotus-throne remind one of Indian Simhasana
and Padmasana. The parasol, a mark of royalty amongst the Mayas, the
Aztecs, and the Incas, may be an adaptation of the royal Ca¢ra in use in
India and Indianized Asia from the earliest times. Both types of parasols
shown in the frescoes of Chak Multun in Yucatan correspond to types
still in use in Southeast Asia. The use of the throne, of the litter, and
of fans mounted like standards on long poles as insignia of rank and
my alty, closely resemble similar paraphernalia of royalty and aristocracy
in Southeast Asia, Not only Aztec court ceremony, but even their form
of government, was similar to that of Southeast Asia; for instance, the
institution of four chief officials in Mexico corresponds to the four
ministers of state and governors of the four quarters of the empires of
Southeast Asia. What is of particular significance is that in both cases
this institution is based on Indian cosmological principles. ;
me MacLeod pointed out that the Mexican a =
ana Sake Indian rite of hook-swinging, the pee a r a
E ndia. In Mexico the participants norm a g a a
i strat; in India by their shoulders. However, an ol eer, i
on of hook-swinging in India in which the participants hang by

491

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

their feet has been unearthed by Heine-Geldern and Ekholm. Nil
at the Bayon at Angkor Thom in Cambodia represents a rite simil
the Volador of Mexico.

ief

ar to

Similar routines of everyday life of Indians and Asiomericans have also
been noted. For instance, betel-chewing with lime and coca-chewing and
tobacco, as well as the gourd-container for the lime are common to both
peoples. The Peruvian substitute for tobacco, which was used for medicinal
purposes, was a shrub, called cuca (coca). The leaves are first dried in
the sun and then mixed with a little lime to constitute “a preparation
for chewing, much like the betel-leaf of the East.””8 Vegetarianism has
been popular both in India and Mexico, and Indian food is similar to
Mexican. The Indian roti or chapati and the Mexican zortilla, similar in
size and shape, are made in the same way. Both peoples have an unusual
respect for corn, and share the custom of offering bits of food, before
eating, to God in expression of their gratitude for the meal provided.

Mirrors of pyrite; shell money; birchbark shelters canoes and containers
with identical curvilinear design from Siberia and North America; string
crosses for prayers from Tibet, India, Assam, Mexico, and Peru; the
custom of fishing with poison; shell fishhooks; the use of agricultural
terraces in Southeast Asia, Peru and Bolivia; and the cultivation of cotton,
were common from early days in both Asia and Amenca.

Some linguistic kinship between India and ancient America has also
been suggested. Miles Poindexter, a former ambassador of the United
States to Mexico, proposed that primitive Aryan words and people came
to America by the island chains of Polynesia. The Mexican name for
boat is a South Indian Tamil word, Catamaran, and Poindexter gives 6
long list ofwords of the Quichua languages and their analogous formsin
Sanskrit.” Similarities between the hymns of the Inca rulers of Peru and
Vedic hymns have been pointed out.” Kroeber has also found striking
similarities between the structure of Indo-European and the Penutian
language of some of the tribes along the northwestern coast of Californi®:

Tylor, writing in 1881, pointed out that the ancient Mexican gam
patolli, a favourite of the Aztecs, was very similar to $ achisi, played in Jndia.
‘The two games were connected in a series of independent features, suchas
divining by lot, a sportive wager, realization of the law of chance, trans sfer
of the result to a counting board, and rules of moving and capturing:

- 492.

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

EerHNOBOTANY, A RELATIVELY recent discipline not hitherto fully
utilized, provides conclusive evidence of both cultural contacts between
Southeast Asia and ancient America, and of transpacific crossings. The
publication of The Evolution of Gossypium. in 1947 by Hutchinson, Silow,
and Stephens brought home to many historians the value of the study
of ethnobotany in tracing the processes of cultural diffusion and the
migrations of people through plants.

A study of cultural intercourse would reveal that the transfer of
knowledge is a slow and uncertain process. Intermittent contacts lasting
even over centuries may not result in any influence. Settlement, on the
other hand, may result in the rapid introduction of numerous culture
traits. As far as plants are concerned, their transplantation is a very
complicated procedure. It requires the adoption of a whole complex
of knowledge about the plant’s ecological requirements, and often also
about its human uses. Hence, the presence of even one transferred plant
would mean that a quite effective and probably relatively durable contact
had been made between two peoples. The presence of a number of plants
would indicate a major cultural contact.

Cotton, which plays such an important part in world economy and
is grown at present in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and to some extent
in Europe, is one of the tantalizing mysteries of history and science. In
Egypt, the first definite proof of its use dates from the fourth century
8.c. But long before this, about 3000 s.c., cotton was cultivated in the
Indus Valley. During the excavations at Mohenjo-daro a small fragment
of cotton fabric and a small piece of cotton string in the neck of a silver
vessel were recovered. These fragments were made from raw material
indistinguishable from the indigenous coarse bengalese cottons found
in the region today. The quality of both the fabric and the string leaves
no doubt that a mature textile craft had existed in the Indus Valley
civilization, It is from this cotton that the perennial forms of East Asia,

uca, and the West have developed.
oe it is certain that cotton was first used in s
er ae of is wild ancestors has been found in In he n
Seas erpretations of the cytogenetic evidence = it = ae
fom = nitors of the early cottons of India may ave een ‘

uthern Arabia or northeastern Africa. This is puzzling enough,

493

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

but when South American cotton is studied scholars and
thoroughly baffled. Evidence of the Asian ancestry
is irrefutable, but substantial proof of the migr
inconclusive.

On the north Peruvian coast known as the Huaca Prieta woven
fabrics of unexpectedly elaborate pattern, dated about 2400 p.c. and
made from a highly cultivated species of cotton, have been discovered,
Archaeological evidence concerning cotton is incomplete because both
cotton plant material and cotton fabrics have survived only in the driest
areas. It is, therefore, principally the botanical evidence, together with
whatever archaeological finds there are, which is relied upon in fixing
the origins of the cotton plant of America.

American cottons are tetraploid in chromosome constitution and
their chromosome complement is made up of one set homologous with
the complement of the diploid Asian cottons and one set homologous
with the complement of the diploid species of America.*! After a series
of painstaking experiments, experts have agreed that one parent of the
American cotton undoubtedly came from Asia: in other words, from
the Indus Valley area.

The vast diversity of cultivated cottons falls into four species,
distinguished from each other by their respective number of chromosomes.
The species, Gossypium herbaceum and Gossypium arboreum, are
diploid (with thirteen chromosomes each) and the other two, Gossypium
hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense, are a more sophisticated species,
the tetraploid, with twenty-six chromosomes each. The first two are of
Asian origin, with Gossypium arboreum coming from the Indus Valley
region, the other from Africa and Arabia. The two tetraploids are of
Amerilcan origin and are hybrid, with half Asian ancestry. The linted
diploid species which were the Asian ancestral species of the Peruvian
tetraploid cotton was Gossypium arboreum, which is typically an Indus
diploid widely distributed over Southeast Asia. j

But how did the two come together? Did the Indus ancestor travè
through Africa across the Atlantic to Peru? This view has been rej ected
not so much because of the inability to explain the feasibility of its
transatlantic journey, which is in itself a difficult problem—because ar
difficulty in understanding, how the two parents came in contact, once

scientists are
of American cottons

ation of Gossypium is

494

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...
Asian species had reached South America. Not only is the closest known
American wild ancestor of the Peruvian cotton confined to the Peruvian
coast, but the whole group of the American wild species of Gossypium are
found on the Pacific side of the continent. Since the American diploids
are all static or relic species with limited distribution, it would appear
that the two met because the Asian diploids are aggressive and spread
rapidly. And as the centres of variability of these major allopolyploids
are within the area at present occupied by the American diploid on the
Pacific side, it would also support the theory that the Indus diploid
entered Peru from the Pacific. If this is true the Asian diploid must have
been the Gossypium arboreum or a species ancestral to it, for no other
linted diploid species could have been carried across the Pacific to western
South America. “There is no evidence that Gossypium herbaceum ever
reached the Pacific and the present eastern limit of the distribution of
Gossypium aboreum coincides apparently with the limit of the area in
which it has recently been used.”

S. C. Harland, whose researches led to the modern studies of the
origins and evolutionary history of cultivated cottons, suggested that they
met on a land bridge across the Pacific Ocean. But objections to this
theory are insuperable. Neither birds nor winds could carry cotton seeds
for a distance of at least three thousand miles and, in fact, the Pacific
Ocean from New Guinea to Peru is about ten thousand miles wide. In
any case, birds do not eat Gossypium seeds, and sea-water would have
destroyed their germinal power. Recently, Skovsted, carrying Harland’s
researches further, has demonstrated that the American cottons are
amphidiploids of the constitution 2 (AD), which makes it essential that
an A genom diploid cotton must have reached Central America through
man’s efforts, where it hybridized with an ancestral D.

__ Again, from the longitude of Guam to that of the Revillo Gigedo
islands there is no record of the occurrence of a diploid cotton north of
Australia. This fact, together with the scientific evidence suggesting that
nie Agente
cotton ge = Mee oe a h he the
ann ae s must have been carried by man y ee: 3
s crop plant and with the tools of his civilization.

m with other

495

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Also, the contact between the Asian and the American s

pecies could
not have come about by migration around the Pacific, eitt

her bya northern
route, by way of China and Alaska, or by a southern route, by way of

the Antarctic. For, as Hutchinson points out, “Gossypium is a genus of
Xerophystic perennial shrubs adapted to the arid tropics. No member
of the genus would grow in an ecological situation where temperate
woodlands existed and until the modern development of short-term
annual cottons under domestication, no member of the genus would
survive in a climate with winter frosts .”34

Scientific evidence is supported by archaeological remains. In the pre-
Inca Peruvian graves not only have woven fabrics been found but also
instruments for weaving and spinning. This would amply support the
theory that cotton was introduced by civilized men, for the development
of fibres into threads and thence into weaving is an important advance in
the skills of man, and a landmark in the history of civilization. It is also
significant that the spindles in Peru used the same device as did the fine
spinner of the Dacca muslins in India. Their two-barred type of cotton
loom has been used in Asia, Europe, America, and everywhere else.
But, as Crawford points out, the fact that this two-barred type of loom
originated in India and spread to Europe, and that it is found with its
technical subtleties of fabric construction in the cotton areas of South
America, would be difficult to explain except in terms of direct or indirect
cultural contact between India and ancient America. :

Contact between Asia and America probably was two-way. If
Asians went with the intention of permanently settling in America, ine
cannot exclude the possibility that some may have returned, possibly
accompanied by some descendants of the early settlers. It is not unlikely
that early American cultures were founded by the impact of Asian
immigration, but they then developed mainly under their own stimulus.
Later the Americanized Asian cultures might have diffused back across
the Pacific giving a new impetus to their original homelands. Cotton s
such an example. It was the Indus cultivated cotton that crossed over tO
America, and, having been hybridized with American cotton returne
to Asia in a new and more advanced form. :

Another plant which appears to have been imported to America

z E, Tea A ; arae
from Southeast Asia is the coconut, cocos nucifera, which is regard

496

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

naracteristic plant of the Pacific. It is a pan-Pacific species which
probably originated along the shores of the Indian Ocean. Because
of the uniformity of its nomenclature throughout the area stretching
from Madagascar to Tahiti, it is concluded that its distribution must
have taken place through the agency of man. However, as “coco” is a
Portuguese word, it is likely that it was the Portuguese who carried it to
South America. Ridley’s suggestion, made in 1930, that the original home
of the coconut must have been Costa Rica and Panama was probably

as cl

based on the Spanish traveller Oviedo’s accounts of the early sixteenth
century. It is refuted by the references made by Marco Polo to coconut
in Sumatra, the Nicobar and Andaman islands, and South India in the
last quarter of the thirteenth century. Indian sources from about the
first century refer to coconuts. Again, coconut palms are represented in
the carvings of both Angkor Vat in Cambodia, and the Borobudur in
Indonesia. The coconut plant was already widespread in Polynesia on
the eve of the first European contact. The suggestion that the coconut
could have drifted from America to Polynesia during the pre-Columbian
period is invalidated by the absence of any evidence that coconuts have
floated to and established themselves on remote islands. The embryo
within the fruit can survive only for a limited period, and the waves could
at best carry it to near-by islands, although there is no evidence that this
occurred. It must have been planted throughout Polynesia by man before

the arrival of Europeans in the Pacific.
Maize, Zea Mays, is widely grown in Asia and Africa. At one time
it was believed to have originated in Asia, but evidence of extensive
cultivation in pre-Columbian America made an American origin seem
most likely. Early this century, Laufer and Merril concluded that the
Spaniards took maize to Asia, by way of the Philippines, from America
during the early modern period. Since then further research has renewed
claims that maize was in use in Asia he before Columbus discovered
America. There is no doubt that maize was of enormous importance in
pre-Columbian America. It was, as it is now, the basic staple of life in
ae Consequently, there are various versions, including a
Peculative, about its origin. The Aztecs believed that their herogoc,
ae who created the human race with his own he
Pe of an ant to steal away a single grain of maize from the

497

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

mountains where the ants had hidden it. This grain he gave to Man to
cultivate. Whilst evidence supporting the claims of maize originating fia
Asia is at present inconclusive, it is more misleading and unwarranted
to assert for instance as Van Hagen has recently done, that maize was
cultivated at Huaca Prieta in Peru as early as 3000 s.c. In fact, the Huaca
Prieta site is noted for its lack of maize pods, although the evidence of the
most ancient maize has been found in other regions of Peru. The earliest
remains of an extremely primitive form of cultivated corn came from a
once-inhabited rock shelter at the Bat Cave in New Mexico. Excavated
by Herbert Dick between 1948 and 1950, these remains have been dated
by radio-carbon analysis as belonging to the mid-third millennium B.C,
but there is no evidence for maize agriculture in the Valley of Mexico
until more than a thousand years later.

‘The maize plant has never been found in a wild state and its immediate
progenitor, despite several speculative theories, is unknown. One theory is
that maize developed from a wild ancestor that was at once a popcorn and
a podcorn; another is that it descended from teosinte or tripsacum. Two
scientists, C. R. Stonor and Edgar Anderson, working independently,
concluded that certain distinctive varieties of maize widely cultivated by
the Nagas in Assam in India, had been in cultivation there from the pre-
Columbian period. Whilst, on the whole, these varieties were similar to
those of maize grown in early Peru and Chile; the popcorns, green corns
used as a fresh vegetable, and brewing corns did not fit into the picture
at all. The Asian popcorns are not at all like the popcorns of Central
America. After a period of collaboration and farther experimentation
these two scientists found the conclusion inescapable, that “there are at
least two races of maize in Asia and that one of these must have crossed
the Pacific in pre-Columbian times. The direction (or directions) in which
it travelled, however, is still uncertain.” It seems somewhat surprising
that the post-Columbian maize should reach such remote areas as the
Naga hills and the interior of New Guinea, and be cultivated by the
hill tribes of Upper Burma and Siam, the Lolo of Central Asia, and the
Aborigines of Hainan, without reaching the surrounding highly civilized
Asian countries. Yet it is a Significant crop of Asian countries.
should India, China, and other Asian countries have taken maize from

the hill tribes, and not from the Europeans before it passed through ue

498

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM...

territories on its way to these hinterlands? It may be possible that maize,
like cotton, crossed the Pacific from Asia to America in prehistoric times,
and was later repatriated.

Whatever its exact origin, the maize plant certainly went through a
long process of skilful cultivation in the hands of Asiomericans. Thin

ancake-like bread made of maize flour, called ż/axcatti by the Aztecs
and tortillas by the Mexicans today, accompanied by beans and peppers,
and washed down with drinks made from maguey or cacao were the
standard diet of the Aztecs and other Asiomericans.

Evidence of the origin of the sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, mainly
cultivated in Southeast Asia and Central America, is inconclusive despite
numerous studies. Various hypotheses on its original home have been
proposed by scientists supporting Southern Asia, Central and South
America, or Africa. Of these, the theory of its American origin is generally
accepted, for it is datable in Peru at least to the beginning of the Christian
era. However, recent cytological research has thrown considerable doubt
on this theory. In spite of its wide distribution, it is a single species,
as is suggested by the continuous ranges in individual morphological
characters, and the consistent chromosome numbers. Although the sweet
potato came to be widely distributed throughout Europe and Asia during
the post-Columbian period, it existed in Polynesia well before that. It
is known that the sweet potato was in Hawaii by about the middle of
the thirteenth century, and no more than a century later it was in New
Zealand. The American prehistorian, Ronald B. Dixon, was convinced
that the sweet potato had reached Polynesia before Columbus reached
America. Whether the original species travelled from Southern Asia or
the Pacific areas to America or vice versa, the fact of its common origin
and diffusion would lend further support to the theory of transpacific
contact. What makes this plant more important for the historian is
that if the transpacific voyages were long and arduous, the sweet potato
tubers would have either been eaten or spoiled. But this did not happen.
Rice of the sweet potato alone shows that voyages were made

y easily across the Pacific.® At any rate, the sweet potato was
certainly transplanted via the Pacific irrespective of the direction of the
ee ney. This is further substantiated by the fact that the name for e

et potato, kumara or kumala, is found in the entire Pacific area, an

499

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

that cognates were prevalent amongst the Aztecs and the
Panama and the Caribbean.

Another typical feature of American culture, the quipu, the device
of the ancient Peruvians for recording events, sending mess
consisting of cords or threads of various colours knotted in v

Peoples of

ages, ete.,
arious ways,
has a replica in Hawaii. Something like quipu was used in early China

and is referred to in the Tao-toh-chiang.

Whilst the importance of cultural similarities must not be
overemphasized, it would be equally untenable to regard them as
incidental results of sporadic or accidental transpacific crossings from
Southeast Asia. To justify the volume of the cultural parallels, there must
have been repeated and consciously undertaken voyages between the two
continents. But the evidence of ethnobotany must clinch the argumentin
favour of the transpacific voyages during historic times. Indeed, acceptance
of the theory of Asian migration to Central America across the Pacific
would resolve a problem in tracing the origins and interrelationships
of world cottons. Scientists have provided definite proof of cultural
diffusion; historians must now provide the evidence of migrations.

The only plausible argument against cultural diffusion from southern
Asia to the Pacific is the distance involved. It is asserted that it would
have been unlikely for a large number of people to have crossed the vast
expanses of the Pacific without well-equipped boats and skilful voyager’.
The argument, however, falls upon closer scrutiny. It would not be at all
difficult for a large canoe or catamaran to cross from Polynesia to South
America even at the present time, and the ancient Asians were skilled
and enterprising seafaring men. Also, in prehistoric times the Pacific
was divided into relatively small areas of navigability studded with small
islands. Within these areas, off-shore voyages of two hundred miles of
so were practical.

However, the migrations with which the present argument is mos
concerned are the ones which took place later in historic times, yaa
cultural traits were sufficiently developed to be transmitted. Asian ability
to cross the seas during that period is undoubted. The art of shipping and
navigation in India and China at the time was sufficiently advanced for

oceanic crossings. Indian ships operating between Indian and Southeast
Asian ports were large and well equipped to sail across the Bay of Bengal

500

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM. . .

When the Chinese Buddhist scholar, Fa-hsien, returned from India, his
ship carried a crew of more than two hundred persons and did not sail
along the coasts but directly across the ocean. Such ships were larger
than those Columbus used to negotiate the Atlantic a thousand years
later. According to a work of mediaeval times, Yukti Kalpataru, which
gives a fund of information about shipbuilding, India built large vessels
from 200 s.c. to the close of the sixteenth century. A Chinese chronicler
mentions ships of Southern Asia that could carry as many as one thousand
persons, and were manned mainly by Malayan crews. They used western
winds and currents in the North Pacific to reach California, sailed south
along the coast, and then returned to Asia with the help of the trade
winds, taking a more southerly route, without, however, touching the
Polynesian islands.*”

In ancient times the Indians excelled in shipbuilding and even
the English, who were attentive to everything which related to naval
architecture, found early Indian models worth copying. The Indian vessels
united elegance and utility, and were models of fine workmanship. Sir John
Malcolm wrote: Indian vessels “are so admirably adapted to the purpose
for which they are required that, nothwithstanding their superior science,
Europeans were unable, during an intercourse with India for two centuries,
to suggest or at least to bring into successful practice one improvement.”*®
It is also known that in the third century a transport of horses, which
would have required large ships, reached Malaya and Indochina. ‘

Emilio Estrada, Clifford Evans, and Betty J. Meggers, who have
pointed out many striking similarities between Ecuadorian archaeological
remains of the early Bahia and early Jama-Coaque cultures (the last two
centuries B.c.) with relics of approximately the same period of Japan,
India, and Southeast Asia, also support the feasibility of transpacific
voyages. The Equatorial Counter-current, running eastward just north
of the equator, leads directly towards the northern coast of Ecuador,
and farther to the north the Japanese current flows eastwards to join the

€xican current moving down along the Pacific coast to Ecuador. Asian
Vessels were already carrying a flourishing trade and traffic from East
ees T western world va Southeast Asia. By r n ee
hee te capable of carrying six hundred men and one ae

cargo. The nineteenth-century geographer and Confederat

501

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

naval Commander, Matthew Fontaine Maury, believed that Chinese
mariners would have had no serious difficulty in discovering America,
“One could go from China via Japan, the Kuriles, the Kamchatka coast,
and the Aleutians to Alaska without losing sight of land for more than
a few hours.”

The New Zealand prehistorian, S. Percy Smith, tries to show in his
Hawaiki—the Original Home of the Maori that the ancient Polynesian
wanderers left India as far back as the fourth century B.c. and were
daring mariners who made, more often than not, adventurous Voyages
with the definite object of new settlements.“ A people who reached as
far east as Easter Island could not have missed the great continent ahead
of them.“

In contrast to the Pacific, the Atlantic is comparatively small and
its winds and currents bead directly toward Central America. Hence,
one may ask why the Asian, rather than the Mediterranean, migration
to Central America be found more feasible? The answer lies in the art
and technique of shipping. The Pacific people first developed advanced
watercraft. Their oceangoing canoes were equipped with masts, sails,
paddles, bailers and stone anchors; some boats even had three masts.
Fora long time the Mediterranean-Atlantic propulsion technique was
rowing, which did not give way exclusively to sail propulsion until the
end of the Middle Ages. Indopacific people had made this shift much
earlier due to their two pieces of sophisticated sailing equipment—the
fore-and-aft-rigged sail made of plaited pandanus mats sewn together in
a triangular form with wooden yards and booms to strengthen the long
sides of the triangle, and the centreboard, both of which employ the same
aerodynamic principle of lift as does the airplane wing. Consequently,
they could paddle forward much more freely and efficiently. Whilst the
Vikings were Sweeping across the northern seas in their long ships, the
Polynesians in their long canoes, mounted with reinforced triangular
sail, were negotiating thousands of miles of sea, often at seven knots an
hour if favoured by a powerful wind.

What was the motive that urged Asians to undertake long journeys
to America? It was probably gold, which initially attracted Indian
adventurers and merchants to Southeast Asia. The remains of Dong-

`

502

RED INDIANS OR ASIOMERICANS—INDIAN FOAM. . .

Son culture are mainly found in gold-producing areas. It is also possible
that the daring ancient mariners were looking merely for new areas for
food and settlement. But it seems more likely they were prospecting
for precious metals, stones, and pearls to cope with the demand in the
centres of ancient civilization. ‘This view is substantially reinforced by
W. J. Perry who was the first scholar to point out the distribution of the
pearling beds of the world, and why, wherever pearls are found, similar
complex religious myths, beliefs, and practices are also found. It is
therefore significant that the mythology of the pre-Columbian American
civilizations “was deeply impregnated by the religious beliefs and practices
and habits of life that obtained amongst the treasureseekers of the Old
World.”? Equally significant is the fact that the Mayas preferred to
settle in that part of Central America which was unhealthy but rich in
precious stones and gold. Somewhat like the Indians, the Asiomericans
accumulated stones and gold and made symbolic ornaments from them.
Mexican temples and idols, as in India, were lavishly decorated with gold
and precious stones.

Whatever the motive, transpacific traffic would seem to have gone on
regularly for about two thousand years, from about the eighth century
B.C. to the twelfth century. The number of Asian migrants was perhaps
not very substantial and they were absorbed in the local populations
of early Asian settlers, but their cultural influence was profound. ‘The
foreign civilization implanted upon more primitive indigenous cultures
by small groups of immigrants was soon absorbed by the local population
and, in consequence, new civilizations were born which, despite their
original character, nevertheless also reveal the features of both foreign
and indigenous sources.

In view of so many parallels in fundamental conceptions and detail,
in mythology, ritual, iconography, architecture, religious beliefs, crowns,
thrones, plants, together with the evidence of migration, it appeals
incredible that isolationists should continue to insist on the independent
evolution of Asiomerican civilization. Each correspondence in itself, with
the exception of a few very unusual ones, may not amount to much, but in
aggregate the evidence of cultural diffusion is formidable. Heine-Geldern

and Ekholm declare unequivocally:

503

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The large number of highly specific correspondences in so many fields precludes
any possibility of mere accidental coincidence. Nor would it help us to take refuge
in any kind of explanation based on some alleged psychological laws. There is
no psychological law which could have caused the peoples on both sides of the
Pacific to stylize the lotus plant in the same manner and to make it surge from
the mouth of a jawless demon’s head, to invent the parasol and use it as a sign
of rank and to invent the same complicated game. There is no explanation other
than the assumption of cultural relationship. We must bow to the evidence of
facts, even though this may mean a completely new start in our appraisal of the

origin and development of the American Indian higher civilization.”

ST

Chapter II

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION
OF INDIAN CULTURE

ONLY SINCE WORLD War II has the term Southeast Asia been used to
describe the area to the east of India and to the south of China, which
includes the Indochinese Peninsula, the Malay Archipelago and the
Philippines, roughly forming a circle from Burma through Indonesia
to Vietnam. Before the term Southeast Asia became common usage,
the region was often described as Further or Greater India, and it was
common to describe the Indonesian region or Malay Archipelago as the
East Indies.! The reason may be found in the fact that prior to Western
dominance, Southeast Asia was closely allied to India culturally and
commercially,

This region was broadly referred to by ancient Indians as Suvarnabhumi
(the Land of Gold) or Suvarnadvipa (the Island of Gold), although
scholars dispute its exact definition. Sometimes the term is interpreted to
mean only Indonesia or Sumatra. It has been suggested that the term was
mainly applied to Burma, but this interpretation is not convincing. Arab
Writers such as Al Biruni testify that Indians called the whole Southeast
region Suwarndib (Suvarnadvipa). Hellenistic geographers knew the area

as the Golden Chersonese. The Chinese called it Kin-Lin; hin means
gold. Although the exact region meant by the term is not clear, itis not
unlikely that the name was applied to the whole Indochinese Peninsula

and the Malay Archipelago.

505

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Southeast Asia is a complex of races and languages. In its m
and jungles live a wide variety of peoples with
advancement and divergent historical experiences

Ountains
ù varying degrees of

- During the last two
thousand years, this region has come under the influence of Practically

all the major civilizations of the world: Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and
Western. Of these, Indian culture appears to have blended best with the
indigenous culture.

It is not known precisely when contact began between India
and Southeast Asia, for Indian writers seldom recorded historical
or topographical details with any degree of accuracy. The modern
historian has to reconstruct the picture from fragmentary references
in literary sources, archaeological remains, and non-Indian writings,
‘The archaeological sources remain insufficiently tapped. Nor are the
excavations always conducted by experts, for easy accessibility to the sites
and the chance of generous rewards often attract pseudo-scientists.

Contemporary indigenous historical narratives are conspicuously

inadequate, and the information in Greek literature is casual and defective.

The references made by the Arab travellers of the ninth century onwards
and by Marco Polo, although of great importance, are impressionistic and
insufficient. Chinese sources reveal considerable information about the
areas geographically and historically close to her, but distant countries
such as Malaya and Indonesia are inadequately treated.

Modern historical research on Southeast Asia is in its formative stages
and the attention accorded its ancient past has been much less than that
given to later periods. Western scholars were mainly stimulated by their
colonial involvement in the area and generally concentrated attention
on their own activities. An idea of the extent of knowledge about
Southeast Asia may be gained from an European scholar who wrote 1n
1861, that, except for Burma, “the Indian countries situated beyond the
Ganges hardly deserve the attention of History.”? Burma was presumably
excepted because the British by that time had fought two successful wats
against her and had annexed Lower Burma to their Indian Empire, and
a few British administrators, such as John Crawford, Henry Yule, and
Arthur Phayre, had written accounts of their missions and the county:
Stamford Raffles in 1817 produced 4 History of Java from materials
collected by a staff of collaborators but it does not seem to have stimulated

506

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

much interest amongst British writers who remained, almost until the
end of World War II, excessively preoccupied with the British in India.
Neither the realization of the close and ancient Indian cultural contact
with Southeast Asia nor the fact that Burma, Malaya, and their other
territorial possessions in eastern Asia were tied to Indian administration,
evoked British interest in the study of early Southeast Asia. Even today,
with the exception of a few notable orientalists and scholars of cultural
history such as Richard Winstedt, G. H. Luce, H. G. Quaritch Wales,
Reginald Le May, and Roland Braddet, British historians have made
little serious inquiry into the cultural past of these Asian countries. A
people with no long cultural history of their own perhaps could not be
expected to be attracted by the ancient cultural past of the people they
dominated. What is surprising, however, is that British intellectual
interest in Asian culture remained much less and much more inhibited
than even that of France and Holland whose own cultural pasts were
only, if at all, slightly better, but whose political and economic interests
in Asia were less than those of the British.

Equally strange is the attitude of Indian historians towards the cultural
past of Southeast Asia. With their appetite for knowledge Indian scholars
could be expected to make an impressive study of Asian culture. But on
the whole they have remained generally indifferent, not even attempting
to integrate their own ancient history with that of their neighbours.
Presumably this is because they have generally followed a prescribed
course of study and inherited a set system of academic training, which is
only gradually adapting itself to new consciousness and need. Indeed, in
their newly found zeal of independence and Asianism, they tend to lean
too much on the nationalist side, although there are notable exceptions,
such as K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, R. C. Majumdar, B. R. Chatterjee, B-
Ch. Chhabra, H. B. Sarkar, and Manmohan Ghosh. Indian interest,
however, has been growing in this field and various publications have
‘merged in recent years.

Although the interest of the French and Dutch scholars in early
Southeast Asian history was also limited, it was, in fact, their work which
eee way for its advancement. Studies concerning a aoe es e
1862 an A were stimulated by the discovery of the temple s 5 4

of the account of the exploratory voyage of Doudart de Lagree an

507

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Francis Garnier. Later, works by E. Aymonier, Victor Goloubew, G
Coedés, H. Parmentier, M. G. Maspero, René Grousset, G. de Coral-
Remusat, Philippe Stern, S. Lèvi, B. P. Groslier, and others, appeared.

The Dutch set up a society to study the culture of the Indonesian
people in 1778 in Java and this inspired numerous studies in earl
Indonesian history and culture. Hendrik Kern, Brandes, Cohen Stuart,
and Holle published important studies on Indonesian epigraphy. Later,
N. J. Krom, W. F. Stutterheim, R. Goris, P. V. Van Stein Callenfels,
F. D. K. Bosch, C. C. Berg, J. C. Van Leur, H. J. de Graaf, J. G. de
Casparis, and many other Dutch writers made notable contributions on
Indonesia’s early history. Amongst the better known Indonesian scholars
in this field are R. Ng. Poerbatjaraka, Sanusi Pane, Mohammad Yamin,
Prijono, and Hussein Djajadiningrat.

But the eastward expansion of Hindu civilization has not yet been
fully traced. Whilst historians have begun to understand its results, its
origin, and its progress in the various individual countries, there still
lies a long road ahead before a substantial assessment of the entire
regional phenomenon can be made. There is, of course, less expectation
of reaching agreement on detailed interpretations. There is a tendency
amongst some Indian scholars to overemphasize Indian influence on
Southeast Asian civilization, and some of them insist on analyzing the
process in terms of cultural domination or colonization. On the other
hand, some non-Indian scholars, especially modern writers of secondary
works, tend to play down India’s importance in the evolution of Southeast
Asian civilization. For a balanced and dispassionate interpretation the
degree of Indian influence should not be overemphasized nor the local
genius overestimated. Dispute amongst historians, however, is not always
along nationalistic lines; often there are genuine differences of well-
considered opinion. For example, whilst F. D. K. Bosch, Parmentier and
E. B. Havell suggest limited local contribution, others, such as Coedès,
Quaritch Wales, and Stutterheim see more surviving influences of the
local cultures. :

Sociologists who have entered the field in recent years tend to disregard
the evidence of literary sources, philology, archaeology, and epigtP by,
and oye trate somewhat uncertain and overstretched ethnolog!<*

fonan and the surviving features of pre-Indian civilization. Briefly

COrge

y

508

sSUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

discussing the limitations of this approach, and emphasizing the need
for the greater study of inscriptions in local languages, Georges Coedés
says, Lam convinced that such research will reveal numerous facts which
will indicate a much deeper Indianization of the mass of the population
than the sociologists will at present admit.”

The advent of Indians in Southeast Asia has hardly a parallel in
history. It cannot be equated with the arrival of Europeans in America,
because the Indians did not go to Southeast Asia as strangers. There
appears to have always been some form of contact. But at a certain point
which is at present indefinite, and due to circumstances which are not
yet determined, an influx of merchants and immigrants into Southeast
Asia resulted in the foundation of indigenous kingdoms, which practiced
the arts, customs, and religions of India, and used Sanskrit as the sacred
language. If the Indianization of Southeast Asia appears to be a new
phenomenon around the beginning of the Christian era, it is because
Indians arrived at this time in noticeable numbers, accompanied possibly
for the first time by educated persons who were able to spread India’s
religions and culture with the Sanskrit language. In fact, the most ancient
Sanskrit inscriptions of Southeast Asia are not very posterior to the first
Sanskrit inscriptions of India proper. However, the earliest archaeological
finds in these areas are not necessarily evidence of the earliest Indian
influence. The priests who consecrated the first Hindu or Buddhist
temples, and the scholars who composed the first Sanskrit inscriptions,
must have been preceded by navigators, merchants, or immigrants, who
founded the first Indian establishments. These establishments, Oc-eo in
Indochina and Kuala Selinsing in Perak, for instance, were not always
completely new creations, but were founded on neolithic sites, which
Indian navigators may have frequented from time immemorial.

In view of the ethnic affinities between the prehistoric Austro-Asiatic
"ces of India and those of Suvarnabhumi, contact between the two
"gions may well go back to the remotest antiquity. Opinion on this
wee however, is by no means united. Mainly a P
they eee ee yan See ae and Kuh for
come z elong to the Austro-Asiatic family, Ra ae nile

2 froue the view thar he Mal A

go in prehistoric times. Some scholars dispute eory

509

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

deny even the existence of the Austro-Asiatic family. There are other
theories, one of which suggests that first the Malays went to India and
then the process was reversed.

Whatever be the ethnic and cultural relationship between India
and Southeast Asia during the prehistoric period, the transplantation
of Indian culture into Southeast Asia began in historic times with
trade contacts. The Buddhist Jatakas tell many stories of enterprising
merchants and princes, sailing to Suvarnabhumi for trade. For instance,
in the Mahajanaka Jataka, Mahajanaka, the son of a banished King of
Videha, undertook trade in order to make money to finance his campaign
against the usurper of his father’s throne. Having collected goods,
including pearls, jewels, and diamonds, he embarked on a ship with some
merchants bound for Suvarnabhumi. There were seven caravans on board
with their beasts (or three hundred and fifty men, depending upon the
interpretation of the original text), and in seven days the ship travelled
seven hundred leagues. The story is told for religious instruction; mention
of trade and sea journeying is incidental. Hence, the geographical and
chronological data are very inadequate.

Reference to Suvarnabhumi is also found in the accounts of the third
Buddhist Sangiti (council) held at Pataliputra in 247 s.c. during the
reign of Asoka. The tradition as contained in the Mahavamsa refers to
two missionaries, Sona and Uttara, who were said to have been sent
to Suvarnabhumi, possibly to Burma, with the message of Buddhism.
Nothing, however, has been found in the countries of Southeast Asia
to corroborate the tradition, and no reference to this incident has been
found in the inscriptions of Asoka.

Accounts of sea voyages, some of which ended in disaster, are also
recounted in other ancient texts, such as the various recensions of the
lost Paisachi text Bribatkatha of Gunadhya, Kathakosa, and the Jain
Jnatadharmakatha. The Kathakosa tells the story of Nagadatta who
went to Suvarnadvipa with five hundred ships to conduct a profitable
trade. Whilst this story, like similar stories of romance, adventure, 4
instruction, must have a touch of the imagination of the tale-teller,
and the size of the merchant fleet may be somewhat magnified

suggests that the trade between the two regions was considerable. The
Jnatadharmakatha mentions that a party of merchants, having braved 2

510

arom y

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

storm, reached an island called Kaliyadvipa and found mines of gold,
silver, diamonds, and other jewels. There are numerous references
in the Arthasastra to those lands and places in eastern and Southeast
Asia, which were worthy of note from, the economic, commercial, or
political viewpoint. For instance, it refers to a kind of sandalwood, called
tailaparnika, which was produced in Suvarnabhumi. The Ramayana
reveals some knowledge of the eastern regions beyond seas; for instance
Sugriva dispatched his men to Yayadvipa, the island of Java or Sumatra,
in search of Sita. It speaks of Burma as the land of silver mines.

Tamil literature contains references to tall roomy ships laden with
goods returning from eastern ports. Puranic cosmology and geographical
divisions into varshas and dvipas point to Indian knowledge of this area,
although the knowledge of the Puranic compilers was somewhat vague
and inexact.

The Milindapanha and the Mahaniddesa, both Buddhist texts,
ascribed to the first centuries of the Christian era at the latest, refer to
trading voyages to eastern ports. The Niddesa enumerates a series, of
Sanskrit or Sanskritized toponyms whose identification with localities
in Southeast Asia has been proposed by Sylvain Lévi. At the present
neither archaeological and epigraphic evidence nor the non-Indian
literary sources allow historians to go further back than the Niddesa with
any degree of certainty. However, if the Niddesa contains older tradition,
the date of Indian voyages could be put back to a few centuries before
the Christian era.

India’s contact by sea with China would also imply Indian contact
with Southeast Asia. On the authority of the Annals of the Former Han
Dynasty, which gives the itinerary of a sea journey starting from the coast
of Tonkin (Te-nan) and ending on the Indian coast, belonging to the
: a of Ta Wu (140-80 B.c.), and which also RE : ne
‘he oe $ ating to the reign of Wang Mang (A.D. m sa Ta
te = ar a from the (Ganges Walley to To y m a X
Tai me and first centuries B.C. S. Lévi, who za = e

E = Sis of such itineraries and who eee ae
not have b ow! edge of the sea route as contained in aay - ee:
the Cae acquired before the second century, 2g

€ evidence, upon which Bagchi based his opinion:

511

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Beyer, the first to conduct systematic archaeological investigations
in the Philippines, finds formidable evidence to strengthen the view
that there was pre-Christian contact between India and Southeast Asia,
He concluded that all the artifacts found during the excavations at the
Novaliches site in the late 1920’s, including pottery, iron implements
and weapons, beads and bangles, were brought to the Philippines from
India over a long period of trade between the two countries. Both the
iron and glass objects found are similar to, and in some cases identical
with, the prehistoric glass and iron finds in South India. In 1948, having
re-examined the theory and its criticism, Beyer substantially reaffirmed
his earlier view. If Indian contacts reached as far as the Philippines in
the centuries before Christ, it would be reasonable to conclude that the
countries en route were also in touch, perhaps more intimately with India.
If this evidence is accepted, there must have been Indian settlements in
coastal Southeast Asia well before the commencement of the Christian era.
Evidence, however, of Indian migration in the first century is definite.
This evidence is archaeological rather than historical, and suggests that
Indians sailed as far as the Sunda Islands. Indian works of art have been
found all along the route from India and, more significantly, all the
cultures that emerged in the area about the same time carry unmistakable
marks of Indian influence. Just why that should have happened remains
obscure, for nothing in written sources explains it.’ x
Information about trade routes between India and Southeast Asia
is found in Chinese and Greek sources. The Greek and Roman writers
did not know of the world east of the Ganges, including China (He
or Thinai), until the first century but they do corroborate the Chinese
evidence of the trade routes. About the middle of the first coy
Pomponius Mela mentions Chryse and Argyre, the islands of gold an
silver beyond the Ganges. Substantial evidence for the existence of a nf
route to China via Southeast Asia comes from the anonymous author 2
the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, who had undertaken a journey tO Indi 2
_ But the first extant description of Southeast Asia as a whole is found in
Ptolemy's Geography, written in the middle of the second century:
_ Land routes between India and Southeast Asia lay through ore
Bengal, Assam, and Manipur. Proceeding to Upper Burma throug!
passes in the Manipur hills, travellers reached Lower Burma throug

512

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Arakan. Part of this route was common with the Indian route to
Szechwan and Yunnan in southwestern China, and although difficult,
it was often used.

The two extreme points in India for sailing to Southeast Asia were
Bharukachha (Broach) on the western coast and Tamralipti (modern
Tamluk in the Midnapore district of Bengal) on the eastern coast.
Between them there were many good ports on both coasts. From
Tamralipti, ships sailed regularly along the coasts of Bengal and Burma
to Malaya, Indonesia, and Indochina. Some ships sailing from India for
the ports in Malaya and beyond first made the journey along the coast
as far as Palura in the Ganjam district, and then travelled across the high
seas, to the Malay Peninsula. Further voyages to the islands of the East
Indies and to the coast of the Indochinese Peninsula were routed through
the Malacca Strait. However, archaeological evidence suggests that many
voyagers disembarked and negotiated the short land journey across the
Isthmus of Kra to the east coast of southern Thailand. From there the
sea journey recommenced across the Gulf of Siam to Indochina. There
were probably also direct sailings from South India through the channel
between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Takua Pa in Siam or
Kedah in Malaya. Voyages also commenced from the Andhra coast, and
proceeded either along the coast or directly to Tavoy in Lower Burma.
From there, the travellers headed for the Menam Delta negotiating the
mountains through the Three Pagoda Pass. A route not generally used
Was to skirt Singapore and reach either what is now Bangkok, through
the Gulf of Siam, or Funan and Champa across the China Sea. At all
these points of embarkation and disembarkation, and all along the inland
Toutes, the harvest of archaeological finds has been rich and has enabled
historians to piece together a coherent account of journeys between India
and Suvarnabhumi.
me Popularity of these routes varied from time to time. The earliest

Uers, it appears, embarked at Amaravati or at Guduru and landed at
oe in Burma. Some of them moved up to oam P a

ass as nee ae — Pees su nee Ae the a
Ga = as the fertile rice plains of Thailand. Later, oa 4 ih

sane ptas, the port of Tamralipti was more frequen y used, p :
ofits proximity to the Gupta capital at Pataliputra. It was trom

513

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

here that Fa-hsien started his sea journey back to China. In Pallava times
Kanchipuram—though not a port, being about forty miles inland—was
more popular for journeys to Burma, Malaya, Java, or Sumatra,

The journey from India to Burma by land was so exacting that
travellers generally preferred to take an alternate route. The Indochinese
Peninsula was covered with mountain ranges, wild and thick jungles
treacherous rivers, and other perils. Inland communications were few and
difficult. The major means of inland communication were the rivers—the
Red River, the Mekong, and the Menam; the overland routes were, and
still are, few. The only regular land route between Burma and Siam was
through the Three Pagoda Pass, although at times some Burmese armies
and migrants did cross over to Siam in the north. There was no regular
road link between Laos, Tonkin, and Annam, and there is still none.
‘The hostility of nature is such that more than four-fifths of Indochina is
almost barren and uninhabitable.

That Indian traders and settlers repeatedly undertook journeys to
Southeast Asia, despite the hazards and perils involved, speaks well for
their physical prowess, courage, and determination, even if allowance
for the pull of profit is made. But they were more than enterprising and
courageous. This is illustrated by the fact that they were able to radically
transform whole civilizations by spontaneous individual effort, without
state aid, planned organizational backing, or political domination. It was
the Indian merchants who opened up the region for Indian religions and
settlements, and who sustained Indian cultural intercourse with Southeast
Asia. In marked contrast with what happened in Central Asia and
China, where once the process had been initiated the principal burden
of cultural diffusion fell on scholars, pilgrims, and monks, the cultural
role of Indian settlers and traders continued undiminished in Southeast
Asia. There were numerous coastal merchant settlements both in India
and Southeast Asia, constantly in touch with each other. To deny them
the qualities of mind and body which they no doubt possessed, would be
extraordinarily prejudicial. Suggestions have been made in the past, a
recently repeated, that the Indian traders were poor and untutored ue
could not effectively transmit ideas.’ In view of the ample archaeolog!™
evidence and of the opinions of specialist scholars in the field, such 5
Coedès, Winstedt, and Groslier, it is surprising that this suggestio®

2 Se

514

seam

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

without any substantial arguments to back it, should ever have been
put forward. ei:

Indians were not the only people trading in Southeast Asia at the time,
but it was the Indians who proved most skilful in winning the confidence
and friendship of the local peoples and in transmitting their cultural
influences. In ancient Indian society, the trading community was wealthy
and, after the ruling houses, the chief patron of priests and learning.
Even today the distinction between the trader and the labourer is clear
enough to a discerning observer. In the ancient period those who came
to Southeast Asia and set up establishments there, whether temporary
or permanent, were wealthy merchants or their agents in charge of
foreign depots: men of skill, enterprise, and culture. Reflecting upon the
extraordinary difficulties involved in these journeys and remembering
that often they were feats of ingenuity, stamina, and perseverance, one
cannot but regard the early Indian traders as remarkably well-equipped
to spread ideas. They were good traders and good sailors and loved to
acquire wealth through risk and honest bargain. Not only were the Indian
traders vehicles of culture in this part of the world, but everywhere trade
has been a major factor in the dissemination of culture. The Indian
commercial relations with the Western counties is one example of it.
The Arabs, as traders, have been the most outstanding transmitters of
culture. Arthur Waley, writing on a similar subject, categorically declares
that merchants were undoubtedly the main carriers of information about
the outside world, and disputes the assertion which is derived from false
analogy between the East and West that merchants are not likely to have
been interested in philosophy. Indian or Chinese merchants, in contrast
to European traders, were “reputedly capable of discussing metaphysical
Westions” and there is ample testimony in Buddhist legend of such
merchants.’

No doubt cultural contact was stimulated by the inherent spirit of
ee adventure and the desire to give and take; the main reason

ndian expansion and the eventual radiation of Indian culture was
ae oe endeavour. Indian trade was aan ©

: ae the Christian era, and later it E ar ete ie

Se es of monsoons made sea journeys between i

orld safe and punctual, and the Roman demand for the luxury

515

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

goods of the East had reached fantastic proportions—far beyond what
India alone could supply. Consequently, the Indians went in increasin
numbers to Southeast Asia looking for those things that could be sl
to the Romans at such good prices that Pliny the Elder was to bewail
this loss of blood inflicted on the Roman economy. Spices, sandalwood,
camphor, and benzoin, were amongst the products of the countries
beyond the Ganges: Takkola, “cardamom market”; Karpuradvipa, “the
camphor island”; Narikeladvipa, “the coconut palm island,” and many
more Sanskrit toponyms reveal the type of interest which attracted
Indians toward these regions. The growing demands of maritime
trade stimulated the development and expansion of Indian shipping.
The consequent economic revolution was so vigorous that it has been
compared to the epoch-making change brought about by the discovery
of the direct sea route to India from Europe fourteen centuries later,
which altered the entire commercial map of the world.

The attraction of lucrative trade was no doubt further strengthened
by the reputation of Southeast Asia for rich gold resources. Perhaps
by modern standards Southeast Asia would not seem to have been so
rich as to justify this reputation, but gold was far more scarce in ancient
days, and the prospects of finding gold were accompanied by a certain
expectation of profitable trade. In the beginning of the Christian era,
India lost Siberia as her most important source of gold, because political
upheavals and large-scale movements of the peoples of Central Asia in
the last two centuries B.C. cut off the trade route.

That Indonesians adopted various Indian numbers would further
endorse the view that Indian trade with Southeast Asia, particularly
with the East Indies, was unusually active. Numerals, terms for na
relations, and terms for parts of the body, generally remain unchange
in a language affected by foreign influences. ;

Since profit, not religious zeal, was the driving force behind Ine
cultural expansion, it is somewhat superfluous to argue whether Hino
or Buddhism came first to Southeast Asia. At any rate no definite an n
can be given, for in thought and culture both religions are me

interlinked and the differences are at best sectarian. Hinduism P o ,
eoat but certainly existed simultaneously. Whilst Hinduism M“
have been due to the presence of Hindus from India and those !0°

———

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

peoples who had imperceptibly absorbed elements of Hindu culture,
Buddhism, an organized missionary religion, must have been introduced
py monks. That Hinduism was not a proselytizing religion, and yet hada
powerful hold for centuries in Southeast Asia, would suggest the existence
of large communities of Hindus or gradually converted peoples.
Although the Buddha is recorded to have instructed his disciples
“et not any two of you go in the same direction,” early Buddhism was
not a proselytizing religion; in fact, it did not begin as a religion at all.
However, it soon developed into one with an unprecedented zeal for
proselytization. During the reign of Asoka, zealous missionaries carried
Buddhism to foreign lands as well as the distant regions of the vast
Mauryan Empire. Innumerable stupas sprang up all over the country,
the finest of which, the stupa of Sanchi, still stands.’ As communication
improved between northern and southern India, Buddhism migrated
to South India. After the fall of the Mauryan Empire, the Satavahanas
founded the first historical empire in the west and the south. It was
then that the ancient trunk route of northern India, which was the
main artery of traffic linking Ujjayini, the western capital of the Imperial
government, with the capital of the Mauryan Empire, Pataliputra in the
east, was extended to the capital of the Satavahanas at Pratisthana. From
Pratisthana the route proceeded southward, bifurcating in both eastern
and western directions. Thus, centres of political power, missionary
religion, and maritime commerce were linked by road transport in an
unprecedentedly intimate contact, bringing Buddhism to the Indian
coastal areas of brisk international trade. From there it was but a short
Step for a dynamic religion, as Buddhism no doubt was, to the countries
of Southeast Asia,
The Hindu Satavahanas, at first, only tolerated Buddhism. Later it
ao actively patronized, and consequently flourished throughout the
atavahana period. It was, however, during the first two centuries A.D.,
ee seers had recovered from a short D oe
a a S Buddhism had its greatest success in cee = a oe
thee = Le when Indian trade, mainly es S A i:
atavahan ae reached tesheenuaee y oe : t, competed in
vila as, ud the Kshaharatas, their rivals in the west, competed
ing Buddhist monasteries, patronizing the monks, and granting

517

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

lands and gifts of money to Buddhist temples. In the eastern Sector of
the Empire, particularly along the southeastern coast of India, Buddhist
stupas and other structures were built mainly through Private effort
which would suggest that Buddhism was even more popular in ee
areas. The remains of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda lend considerable
support to this view. Both cities were situated on the river Krishna; the
distance between the two by land was about sixty miles, and by river a
little more than one hundred. Amaravati was contemporaneous with the
Satavahanas, whereas Nagarjunakonda was developed after their fall, and
is associated with the Buddhist teacher, Nagarjuna. It was from this area
and during this time that Indians sailed mostly to Southeast Asian ports,
which makes it likely that they were either Buddhist or at least familiar
with Buddhist teachings.

Whilst Hinduism may have been more popular with the settlers,
courts, and aristocracy, Buddhism with its simplicity and doctrine of
human equality may have gained more attention from the common
people as it did in China. Both in their respective ways, however,
helped cultural intercourse until the whole of Southeast Asia professed
Buddhism, Hinduism, a mixture of both, or an admixture of these and
their own indigenous beliefs. Practically all sects and schools of Hinduism
and Buddhism, from vedic worship to Tantric beliefs, entered these
countries. Siva, generally speaking, was a more popular Hindu god
than Vishnu. Many Cambodian and Indonesian kings had their image
installed in the likeness of the deity they worshipped, superimposing
on their own personality the attributes of their favorite god. In som’
countries, such as Indonesia, Hinduism was so intermingled with
Buddhism that Siva and the Buddha were described as brothers. Indeed,
in Balinese temples where the religion is Balinese Hinduism, Saiva 27
Buddhist priests sit side by side, although dressed differently, as they ae
the laity. Theravada Buddhism found a far greater following in Souther:
Asia than the Mahayana School. In countries such as Indonesi fs
Malaya, which became Muslim in the fourteenth and fifteenth ene
the earlier beliefs still survive. Most have been given an Islamic ene ;
but in some cases they are still in-their original form. In compartint g
inaccessible mountainous regions ofinterior Indonesia, indigenous be be
are combined with Hindu and Buddhist practices, and in many Ce

518

oy

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

such as Jogjakarta and Surabaya, Muslims, theoretically not supposed to
worship icons, can be seen kneeling in prayer before beautifully sculptured
Hindu-Buddhist images of the ninth century and later.

It seems that the Indian immigrants made no conscious attempt to
convert local peoples to their faith or culture; they certainly did not
impose it by force. Proselytism was precluded by the very nature of the
Hindu faith, which perhaps would explain the general unconcern of
Indians with the Indianization of Southeast Asia, as well as the absence
of references in Indian literature relating to the processes of change.
However, there were Buddhist missionaries who worked for the spread
of their faith, and some centres and monasteries earned a widespread
reputation for their learning.

Whether they were monks or merchants, the culture of these Indians
deeply affected the countries they visited or settled. Groslier gives a
graphic description of Indian traders who came to Spice Island with the
southwestern monsoon looking for goods for export to the Mediterranean
world. They had to temporarily settle in the deserted land waiting for the
favourable wind to return, and gradually the demands of increasing trade
compelled them to establish permanent depots in these lands.

Intermarriage must have played an important role in this cultural
synthesis. Soon complete fusion of population and culture was achieved.
‘This fact should dispel any arguments of Indian caste rigidity at the
time. The argument, first advanced by Coedés long ago and almost
mechanically repeated by certain other scholars, that since the caste
‘ystem, which was an integral part of the Hindu social organization, did
not exist in Southeast Asia, Indian cultural influence must have been
Partial, ignores the fact that the Indian culture which radiated abroad was
a blending of Hinduism and Buddhism, and that the caste system was
not so rigid at that time. Also, many settlers and sailors were Buddhists
and Opposed to the caste system. =
A ae there was a continuous influx of eee ee me
cide no Southeast Aci mar 2 A nae the

ee y went to other lands to preach or to make pro oe eae

3 Sn and other Europeans, there is no eee o P eae

oes T or merchant seeking employment at the aie 5 n x
ns of amassing wealth. However, once Indians had beco:

519

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

a part of Southeast Asian life, they were often employed by the local
rulers. Later, Indianized kingdoms emerged either as a result of an
Indian imposing himself on the local population or else through a local
chief adopting the foreign civilization. With time it was inevitable that
there should emerge able men of enterprise and ambition who sought
power and authority. Those who succeeded in setting themselves Up as
rulers brought to their court and household, at least in the beginning, the
required staff of priests, scribes, goldsmiths, weavers, bards, sculptors,
scholars, bodyguards, and so on, as well as Indian texts on law and
jurisprudence, the arts, and the like. All aspects of the culture of the
rulers penetrated the society of their adoption. In time, local people were
employed in various positions and local influences were assimilated by
the Indian rulers and settlers.

Despite the large-scale influx of Indians of various economic classes
and intellectual levels over a long period, there is no evidence of any local
resistance to their arrival. The friendly reception accorded Indian settlers
is in marked contrast to the strong distrust and opposition encountered
by European settlers and traders practically everywhere, not only from
highly civilized and sophisticated communities but also from primitive
and aboriginal peoples. There is no evidence that the Indians regarded
these new lands as outlets for their excessive population or an exclusive
market for their growing trade, or that they insisted on the superiority
of their culture. Wherever Indians settled they gave what they had and
took what they could. Thus was evolved, by mutual consent, a new culture
whose dominant note was Indian. :

Southeast Asian traders or Buddhist pilgrims who visited ba
brought back Indian traditions. Consequently, an Indian politica
system, centring around the king, with a Hindu-Buddhist cosmologic
basis of kingship; Indian epic and sacred texts; Indian mathematics
_ and astronomy, and Indian skills in husbandry and handicrafts becam“

increasingly entrenched in the new lands. Sanskrit became the mi
language, and along with Pali, was used for religious texts. The ae
schools of Hinduism and Buddhism found a following in these countn® >
and even Indian Islam entered Southeast Asia. The impact of pee
civiliza tion was such that it did not remain confined to settleme”

re Sere ut
‘Or coastal areas, as one would expect in an age of slow transpo

520

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

jenetrated to the centre and distant corners of mainland and inland
Southeast Asia.

According to Quaritch Wales, Indianization, although a continuing
process, proceeded in successive peaks, which he calls the Four Main
Waves of Indian Cultural Expansion. These waves, which correspond
to the peak periods of Hindu-Buddhist civilization, are the Amaravati
in the second and third centuries, the Gupta from the fourth to the sixth
centuries, the Pallava from about 550 to 750, and the Pala from about 750
to 900. He adds a fifth wave, supplementary to the fourth, the late Pala
influence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, after the disruption of
Nalanda University. Perhaps a sixth wave of Islam could also be added,
for it was principally Indian Islam that travelled to Southeast Asia. ‘This is
asimplified classification of a complex process which does not lend itself
to neat categorization, but it does reflect the fact that the Indian cultural
encounter with Southeast Asia assumed different forms in different
periods, and that it was closely connected with the changing patterns
of Indian society. The Indian impact was a kind of chain reaction, in
which each successive wave of Indian immigrants worked out a cultural
synthesis with the local people, including localized Indians, with varying
degrees of concentration and assimilation.

Besides commercial profit and cultural propaganda, there were
other reasons that prompted this vigorous, sustained, and extraordinary
maritime expansion by a people who today are not particularly noted for
their adventurous spirit or material pursuits. One conclusion is obvious:
the ancient Indians were very different from their modern descendants
in their spirit of commercial enterprise as well as missionary zeal. They
Were not reluctant to go out seeking people with whom they could
exchange goods and ideas. However, various other explanations have

“en suggested. For example, a remote cause is to be found in the third
century B.c, in the conquest of Kalinga by Asoka, and in the resultant
So of population. Others believe that the pressure felt by the mass
eee Population because of the m n oe aoe
pluie a Indian emigration; this would a c! mae o A
People s is also suggested that a wholes e ag poon

ght have been caused by Samudragupta’s conquest ©

India: +h: ; :
ndia; this would explain the simultaneous rise of the Hindu states in

521

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Southeast Asia. However, none of these explanations would appear to be
correct, because the available data clearly indicate that Indian expansion
in the first centuries was of a commercial nature, and not a haphazard
movement of groups of people seeking asylum from unrest. No evidence
has been advanced to show a systematic displacement of large Indian
populations. If invasions or internal chaos were normally to cause an
exodus of Indians to foreign lands, then there would have been many
more migratory waves, especially during the period beginning with the
disastrous incursions of Mahmud of Ghazni.

That the introduction of Indian culture was a gradual process
presupposes that the indigenous cultures were sufficiently well developed
to exchange knowledge. ‘The local cultures adopted only those Indian
features of which they approved. It is possible that the local element was
subordinated to Indian influence but it was never eclipsed, and the local
people never completely lost their freedom of initiative. A people who
could feel the stimulus of an alien culture and respond to it in accordance
with their need cannot but have attained a certain degree of civilization.
The facility with which the Indians were able to expand their culture in
Southeast Asia may lend some weight to the view that in their beliefs
and attitudes the indigenous peoples could see a reflection of their own
traditions.

What sort of civilization existed in Southeast Asia before the advent
of Indian cultural diffusion? Because of the earliest racial and cultural
movements it seems that by the last phase of the Neolithic Age, the
entire region was inhabited by ethnically intermixed peoples. The most
characteristic feature known of this period is the different forms of adzes
with quadrangular sections. These adzes are found in North India, Burm
Malaya, China, and Japan. Probably this quadrangular adze-culture
came to the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia through China and cent It
Indochina (Laos and Siam) sometime between 2000 and 1500 ee f
brought to Indonesia what are called the Austronesian languages (ee ;
later developed into Indonesian languages), and introduced the outrig8""
canoe, rice cultivation, domesticated cattle or buffaloes, head-hunting
and the custom of erecting megalithic monuments." This culture wes i
most widespread and important of the Stone Age cultures of the a ;
because of its artistic development, especially in pottery and weaving:

>: 522

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Whilst Heine-Geldern considers that originally Indonesians migrated
from Yunnan and southwestern China, Hendrik Kern, who wrote in
1889 and relied on linguistic evidence, suggested it to be Indochina and
the neighbouring areas, in which sugar cane, bananas, cocoanut, bamboo,
and possibly rattan were grown. Rice was the staple food of this seafaring
people. The Neolithic wave of migration, however, does not seem to have
gone beyond the Moluccas and did not reach New Guinea.

The next stage in the development of these countries, known as the
Dong-son culture, which has been defined as the culture of the Indonesian
peoples of the coastal belt of Annam, took place between the fifth and
second centuries B.C. It was characterized by extensive use of bronze and
considerable knowledge of iron. The bronze work was quite advanced
and bronze kettledrums are a special feature of this period. Of superb
workmanship, they were widely used for ritual purposes. They have very
thin walls and the bronze is an alloy of copper and lead as in the mints of
China in the Han times. Later, in the Indian period, the usual copper-
tin alloy came back into use. In addition to the drums, swords, daggers
and helmets, household utensils and small statuettes, all of bronze, and
ornaments of shell and semi-precious stones have been found. The first
find of drums was made near Thanh-hoa in Annam. However, they have
subsequently been discovered all over the island area.

The Dong-son people were skilled agriculturists, fishermen,
shipbuilders, and sailors. Their navigation was more developed than that
of their predecessors and they had some knowledge of astronomy. They
were well-travelled merchants and, significantly, some of their names
for weights and measures, such as dari and zail, are still used in Malaya
and Indonesia.

It has been suggested recently that the Dong-son culture can be
traced back to the Yueh people who inhabited the coastal regions of
China about 2000 B.C., and whose typical traits, according to Eberhard,
lee developed navigation; the practice of naine maa ae
decree oe he deon Boat festa a A a the concept
of the dra in a way showing connection with a rite; see
ofa gon as the river god. Elements of this c ae EET,
ey ae at of sacred mountains—the latter developed in po i

Ple festivals—and of certain trees.” However, as Eberhard himse

523

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

points out, the subject of the affiliations of these early cultures of the
Pacific lands can be tackled only in a tentative manner.”

There are various other theories, all disputed and unresolved
concerning the relationship between Austro-Asiatic or Austric
culture—the culture which spread across the Indo-Chinese peninsula
to the extremities of northeastern India—and pre-Aryan India. If some
are valid, Indian contact with Southeast Asia began many cenuturies
before the Christian era and continued vigorously until about 1500,
Even if the possibility of cultural contacts during the prehistoric times,
of which there is only- fragmentary and indefinite archaeological evidence
and legendary accounts, is discounted, direct Indian contact with the
countries of Southeast Asia lasted for about fifteen hundred years.
Whilst Hinduism stagnated and Buddhism almost disappeared in India
during the mediaeval period, they both flourished in Southeast Asia.
Burma, Thailand, Ceylon, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam are even today
predominantly Buddhist nations, and Malaya and Indonesia—with the
exception of Bali which still professes Balinese Hinduism—remained
Hindu-Buddhist until the rise of Islam in the fifteenth century. However,
Islam did not dislodge Indian culture; it became another tributary in the
river of Malay culture. South India by far exerted the greatest influence on
Southeast Asia, although Gujarat, Bengal, and Malwa made significant
contributions.

The line of demarcation between Chinese and Indian cultural influence
in Southeast Asia may be drawn from eastern central Tibet southward
through the Indochinese Peninsula, then in a southeasterly direction 2r
Indonesia; but there was much interpenetration. Formosa, Tonkin, aoe
the Philippines remained on the Chinese side, whilst Laos, Cambodia,
Siam, Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia came within the Indian sphere.
Chinese influence, however, does not seem to have been very gies
Formosa is really a part of the Chinese nation, and in the Philippin®
both India and China made contributions, as well as other a
including the West. Even Tonkin, which is physically, ethnologie J
and often politically allied to China, retained Buddhism and a good &
of Indian culture. ae
‘The nature and depth of Indian and Chinese influences oe
as did the processes of their advance. Whilst the o

524

<UVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

migrants had little inclination to mix with local populations, even though
there was an ethnic affinity between them, the Indian settlers intermarried
freely with indigenous people. Even within the Indian sphere of
influence, the Chinese, who established themselves at selected trading
points, remained colonies of foreigners with little inclination to mix
with the local population. Chinese cultural expansion was the secondary
outcome of political domination, for China seldom exported culture for
its own sake but gave it as if to soften the blow of conquest. Except for
some political interference in Ceylon and for the naval expedition sent
by Rajendra Cola against the Sri Vijaya Empire in 1025, no Indian state
ever made any serious effort to dictate political terms, much less culture,
to the peoples of Southeast Asia. Chinese culture remained confined to
the people of Chinese descent in these regions, and nowhere, with the
possible exception of Tonkin, is there any trace of the total assimilation
of Chinese culture.

Indian and Chinese cultures have met in other areas, but in Indochina
the meeting was on a large scale, and their interaction with the existing
culture has been a unique phenomenon in history. Although India was
farther away from Indochina, it does not appear that this was much of
ahandicap. Tonkin, over which China ruled for long periods, was the
only area in the whole Southeast Asian region where the local people
absorbed more Chinese than Indian culture. Even then it accepted
Buddhism and, in turn, transmitted it to southern China. Describing
the contrast between the methods and effects of these two influences,
Groslier observes: “China quite simply conquered and annexed Tonkin,
making a clean slate of the past to impose her civilization and finally turn
the country into one of her provinces; a province scarcely recognizable as
distinct from others in her vast empire. Whereas India only touched on
the southern coasts of Indo-China, and vanished again from the scene,
“ne her seafaring activity practically came to an end in about the fifth
Se. AD: But in that short space of time the peoples thus drawn out

their isolation, on their own initiative took over her culture, and ven
i oe created new civilizations of profound ee
shat = see India scattered seed, and between them a

ouble aspect of Indo-China.” i

525.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indeed, as Coedes has pointed out, Southeast Asia was able

: : o 5 to make
progress mainly during those periods of history

when it was left alone by
a China weakened by her own internal political upheavals. China never

liked the establishment of powerful empires in her neighbourhood, and
the states of Southeast Asia found a favourable climate for Political and
cultural progress at a time when China was politically unstable, The
ascendancy of Funan during the fourth and fifth centuries coincides with
the chaotic period of the Three Kingdoms in China; the consolidation
of Champa’s power in the seventh century, the peak of pre-Angkor
Cambodia, the blossoming of Angkor Cambodia in the tenth century
and the growth of the Khmer, Cham, and Burmese kingdoms at the end
of the eleventh century coincide with periods of weakness in Chinese
history. In contrast, the strength of cultural movements in India is
reflected in similar movements in the countries of Southeast Asia.
Even the remarkable Hellenization of the Mediterranean world does
not compare with the Indianization of Southeast Asia. India was far from
Southeast Asia and had never dominated any of the local kingdoms;
nor did any purely Indian dynasty, unlike the Greeks in Egypt or Syria,
ever rule the area. Hellenic civilization directly expanded in those areas
that were in the Greek neighbourhood and had been dominated by
Hellenic dynasts. There were far fewer Indians in Southeast Asia than
Greeks in the Hellenistic world, and those Indians had to contend with
an equally powerful Chinese civilization in an area mainly frequented
by Chinese, and in which most of the local peoples were racially closer
to China than to India. On the other hand, Greek civilization did not
confront such a contrast of cultural and ethnic types. In fact, the Greeks
were not successful in influencing Persians, West Asians, of Indians.
On the contrary, they were considerably influenced by them. Er
in effect, Indian culture in Southeast Asia left behind more than W®
‘left by Hellenism in the Mediterranean world. There is nothing i9 T
Hellenistic world to compare with the Angkor Wat or Borobudur. as
Hellenism merged into Hellenisticism and absorbed many traits os
civilizations, Indian culture has continued to grow quite distinctly: 4 g
India contributed not only philosophy and thought, but also a relig’ ;
- that still Survives in most areas of Southeast Asia. Greek religio? 5
thing of the past.

526

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Whatever be the precise nature of the process of Indian cultural
alliance and influence, its extent was deep and extensive, and its effects
were felt in all aspects of culture from religious thought to the technical
skills in agriculture and handicrafts. First the Indian alphabetic system,
which is still used in Burma, Siam, Cambodia, and Laos, was introduced,
followed by the introduction of Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature, “playing
just the same part as Latin in Mediaeval Europe. India also taught her
political system centred on the king, and her main religious beliefs. Her
sacred texts, and her great epics, were so well learnt throughout this
India beyond the seas that they became naturalised in each of these lands.
Finally, India unfolded the secrets of her mathematics and astronomy,
making possible calendar calculations of much greater accuracy than in

16

the past, and all her technical skill in husbandry and handicrafts.”
Ceylon

Sti Lanka, Sinhala, or Ceylon, which is India’s closest neighbour
to the south, was possibly the first country in southern Asia to feel the
impact of Indian immigration. Ceylon’s cultural relations with India,
often reinforced by close political ties, have been almost continuous to the
present day. Strictly speaking, Ceylon is not counted as part of Southeast
Asia but it did act both as an intermediary and a base for the eastward
migration of Indian culture and religions. In the history of Buddhism and
Hinduism, as well as in the contemporary Indian world, Lanka occupies
an eminent position. The Hindu epic, Ramayana, narrates the story in
which Rama’s conflict with Ravana, the king of Lanka, is the central
theme. Although the history of ancient Ceylon, when it was known as
Lanka in India, is largely a complex of myths, legends, and plausible
Conjectures, and the beginnings of the earliest migrations are indefinite,
it is undoubted that the early settlers of Ceylon came from India."

f The Vaddas were possibly the earliest peoples of Ceylon but it is the
ollowing Aryan migration which has been authenticated. The language
E a Aryans gave rise to Sinhalese, now the national language on
Li yon: The Aryan migrants, members of the Sinhalaa, Sinhalas, or the

on Tribe, named their new home Sinhaladvipa, from which have

wae d its later variations: the Portuguese Ceilao or Zeylan, and the
nglish Ceylon.

527

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The coming of Aryans is represented in the Mahavamsa by the sto
of Prince Vijayasimha who came from northern India in the sixth
century B.C. In spite of the legends that surround him, his historical
existence is generally acknowledged. It was, however, at the time of the
introduction of Buddhism during the reign of Asoka that close contact

between India and Ceylon began. This contact became so constant thatit

is not always possible to separate the history of South India from that of

Ceylon. Indeed, the period before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1505
is sometimes referred to as the Indian period of Ceylonese history,
By the time Buddhism arrived, the Aryans, who were not altogether
cut off from their kinsmen in India, had opened up the country,
established settlements in the dry zone, introduced the use of iron,
organized a system of government, and spread Hindu doctrines. The
existence of Hinduism is undoubted, but the extent of its popularity is
not precisely known; other faiths, such as Jain and Ajivika, were also
practiced. Certain elements of Hinduism, such as the caste system, are
known to have existed in pre-Buddhist Ceylon. It is also possible that
the fame of Buddhism had reached Ceylon before the third century B.C.
when Asoka sent in the mission headed by his son (or brother), Mahinda
(or Mahendra), the first foreign missionary and the real founder of
Buddhism in Ceylon. According to the Mahavamsa, the King of Ceylon,
Devanampiya Tissa (247-207 B.c.), received Asoka’s mission with great
respect and, deeply impressed by the new faith, he and his people es
embraced Buddhism. Mahinda delivered a number of sermons duting
his initial stay of twenty-six days at Anuradhapura, the capital, and vaa
he left there were already sixty-two monks. Whatever be the Een
of the story of his spectacular success, there is no doubt that the vise
this young man, who worked for the next forty-eight years of his life in
Ceylon, marks the beginning of Sinhalese culture as we know it, and the
phenomenal rise of Buddhism throughout the country. t
Because no monk was allowed to ordain nuns, Asoka later “a
Sanghamitra, Mahendra’s sister, to Ceylon to ordain Queen An A
and other women who expressed the desire to enter the Sangha. ne
said that she brought with her a sprig of the Bodhi Tree, under ee
Gautama B uddha had attained enlightenment. The branch was ee
at the al in an impressive ceremony, and the sacred tree we

528

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

resulted still exists.”® The idea for this transplantation of a branch of the
Bodhi Tree is attributed to Asoka. The Tree served as an inspiration to
the people who had recently embraced the Buddhist religion, became
symbolic of Buddhist supremacy in Ceylon, and strengthened the cultural
links with India. Later, other sacred relics were imported to Ceylon
from India. A returning Ceylonese mission from Pataliputra brought
the alms bowl of the Buddha, which was housed in the Thuparama
Dagoba, and one of the Buddha’s teeth was enshrined in a specially built
temple, Dhammachakka. ‘These events in the early history of Ceylonese
Buddhism left a deep impression on the Sinhalese people and still evoke
pious enthusiasm amongst millions of its votaries.

There are various legends about the tooth, but it is known to have
been in Ceylon when Fa-hsien visited the country in the fifth century.
The tooth has a chequered history, for powerful monarchs, both within
Ceylon and outside, longed to possess it. Some hostile powers sought to
destroy it; the Portuguese claimed to have captured and burned it in the
marketplace of Goa during their suzerainty over Ceylon from 1517 to
1600. It has, however, survived all such attempts and is now preserved
in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth at Kandy where a colourful festival
is held each year.

The reign of Vattagamani (ca. 29-17 B.C.) is an important landmark
in the history of Buddhism in Ceylon, for it was then that the sacred
scriptures, which had been committed to memory, were written down
through the efforts of hundreds of reciters and scribes. The sacred Pali
canon, the Tripitaka, which survives today and the original of which
has long since vanished from India, was the result of this mass effort.
Buddhism became so powerful in Ceylon that kings went out of their
Way to identify themselves more closely with it and to extend it special
Patronage. Monks began to pour into Ceylon from India and monasteries
foe erected all over the country with generous endowments made for
io Hundred of thousands of men and women embraced

ew faith and thousands entered the Sangha. :
pene on particularly enthusiastic response to ee
Who wer y because Buddhism was seeking support eae with
India B e already ethnologically and culturally closely asso a

- By the time it came to Ceylon, Buddhism had assumed a popular

529

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

form. It did not stress its abstruse doctrines but sought to emphasi

; RS. asize
the personality of the Buddha as an inspiring teacher and as
of supernatural power. It was this image which was most a

comprehensible to the common man. Buddhist literature

a Saviour
ppealing and

was rich and
comprehensive enough to satisfy both monks and laymen. It was therefore

easy for Buddhist preachers to communicate with the masses in Ceylon,

‘The adoption of Buddhism as the national religion was followed by
major changes in the social and religious life of the people, as well as in
the royal household and court. The court was additionally influenced by
India because the Ceylonese royalty established matrimonial links with
South Indian royal houses, and continued to maintain them. During
certain later periods, parts of Ceylon and South India were joined under
one ruling dynasty, and trade contacts between India and Ceylon were
further strengthened. Pali—also much Sanskrit—became the literary
language of Ceylon, and Ceylonese literature has close affinities with
its Indian counterpart. The art of writing possibly came to Ceylon with
the Aryans before the introduction of Buddhism; the earliest known
specimens of writing, however, are associated with Buddhism.” Whether
the Ceylonese alphabet was introduced during the period of Asoka or
before, it is undoubtediy Indian in origin,

‘The rise of Buddhism also witnessed a blossoming of Ceylonese att
and architecture. King Devanampiya Tissa was the first to promote the
building of sacred monuments, the earliest of which is the Thuparama
Dagoba at Anuradhapura, built during the days of Asoka. A successo!
of his, Dutthagamani (101-77 s.c.), built the Lohapasada, the brazen
palace, and began the Ruvanvelisaya Dagoba, which was completed

after his death. King Mahasena (334-362), who is famous for his ae
irrigation tanks, also built the largest dagoba (or stupa), commonly calles
the Jetavanarama, at Anuradhapura. The 251 feet high Jetavanaram
Dagoba stands on a platform which covers nearly eight acres ofa fourteen
acre walled enclosure. The Abhayagiri Dagoba, almost equally massiv
is reputed to have been built in the first century B.C. d
- The main architectural remains are found at Anuradhapura a d
Polonnaruva, the two most famous capitals of ancient and mediae”
_ Ceylon. The former was the royal capital for more than a thousand yeu"”
S as superseded about the eighth century by the latter whi

tafe

530

——

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

remained the capital until the thirteenth century. Ceylonese antiquities,
therefore, belong to two widely separated periods. Anuradhapura
architecture goes back to the third century s.c. although most of it
dates from the early centuries A.D., whereas the important structures of
Polonnaruva belong to the second half of the twelfth century. The most
conspicuous structures at Anuradhapura are the Buddhist dagobas, far
exceeding in dimensions anything extant in India. But the magnificent
stupas and the ornamental and decorative architecture, the sculptures of
dwarfs and of Naga deities, the moonstones, and the stone railings of
Anuradhapura recall those of Sanchi and Amaravati. ‘The latter phase of
this period is characterized by influences typical of Andhra art, as seen
in the Buddhist sculptures of Amaravati.

During the Polonnaruva period, Ceylonese architecture was mainly
influenced by the South India Pallava art of the seventh century. Examples
in Ceylon of the sacred shrines of the Pallava period are the Koneswara
temple at Trincomallee, and the ancient temple of Tiruketiswaram. ‘The
Tivaka Vihara at Polonnaruva, built by Parakrama Bahu (1153-1186),
has a high pyramidal roof in Dravidian style; indeed, the buildings at
Polonnaruva in general have a distinctly Dravidian character.

In Buddhist shrines, Hindu deities occupy honoured places; Vishnu
is particularly popular in Sinhalese Buddhist temples, for he is not
considered a rival of the Buddha but the protector of Ceylon, and is
worshipped as subordinate to the Buddha. Hindu temples were also
built: for example, the Siva temple at Polonnaruva dating probably
from the eleventh or twelfth century resembles the South Indian Chola
buildings, Ceylonese sacred monuments and monasteries, however,
are distinguished from those in India by certain features common with
Buddhist structures in Indochina.
_ Painting and sculpture in Ceylon, although modified by indigenous
influence, generally followed Indian models. But often the mark of
Ceylon is so deep on certain works of art that its Indian origins are not
n evident. The Ceylonese “moonstone,” a semi-circular slab placed

the foot of a staircase and carved elaborately in low relief, although
developed from the plain Amaravati type moonstone, is especially

characteristic of Ceylonese art. Its design is invariably based on the open
Otus flower.

531

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indian influence on Buddhist iconography is unmistakab

? vary le. Large
statues of the Buddha, seated, standing, or reclining, ;

are abundant in
the country, and some of them go back to the beginning of the Christian

era. The earlier type of Buddha image known in Ceylon is that of the
Andhra School, and the folded drapery style of the early Buddha images
closely resembles that of Amaravati.2? The stone Buddha statue, from
the Toluvila ruins at Anuradhapura, with a local devotee seated beside
it, is comparable to the best Gupta sculpture, and Pallava influence can
be seen in the sculpture of Polonnaruva. Some Ceylonese sculpture may
have even been cast in India. The human panel-figures generally resemble
those at Sanchi, although they are more advanced in style.

Early Sinhalese pictorial art is said to have been inspired by Amaravati,
and the frescoes at Sigiriya bear striking similarities to those of Ajanta,
Situated on an isolated hill, Sigiriya was constructed as an impregnable
refuge by King Kasyapa I, who reigned during the last quarter of the
fifth century, and the paintings, comprising twenty-one female portraits,
are placed in two irregular rock chambers, usually called pockets. Some
recent observers have noticed the reflection of the Amaravati style and
technique in the art of Sigiriya. Whatever be the foreign influence,
the Sigiriya frescoes are remarkable productions of their age. There is
nothing to suggest who the artists were, where they came from, or how
they learned their art.

Apart from the ancient Pali Chronicle, Mahavamsa, the main sources
of the history of dance and music in Ceylon are art and literature.
Details of sculptured dancing figures, and wood and ivory carvings
undoubtedly reveal the relationship of the Ceylonese dancers’ art with
that of Indian, particularly Bharata Natyam, which spread to Ceylon
from South India. The Mahavamsa mentions musical instruments such
as mridanga, kahala, maddala, and vina, which are still in common US

_in India. Most of the musical instruments listed in the Thupavamsa a
Dalada Sirita, belonging roughly to a period between the one
and fourteenth centuries, are of Indian origin. Some of the drums =
identical with those of South India. A number of technical terms Ge ae

__ in Indian music are referred to in the Sinhalese poem, Kavislumina

Sinhalese folksongs, for example harvest songs, is seen the reflection °

532

sy VARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

the folksongs of Malabar which accompany the transplantation of paddy
seedlings in the fields.

In turn, Ceylon has contributed a good deal to India and the world
by carefully preserving the original Buddhist doctrine and practice. It
was from Ceylon that the world learned the must authentic account
of the rise of Buddhism. The Pali canon has had great influence upon
Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos: the countries where ‘Theravada

Buddhism flourishes today.
Burma

Burma is the largest country in the Southeast Asian mainland with
an area of a quarter of a million square miles. Although there was a
land route between India and Burma from very ancient times, trade and
contact between the two countries developed by sea rather than by land
because Burma lay across the highly inaccessible Assam and Manipur
hills, and the Arakan hill ranges. In contrast, the sea route to lower Burma
was relatively easy. It was an important stage in the route from India to
China, although today Burma lies off the main road of world commerce,
which goes by sea through the Strait of Malacca.

It was mainly through Buddhism that Indian thought and culture
made an impression on Burmese life and civilization. The Ceylonese
chronicles speak of two of Asoka’s missionaries, Sona and Uttara, who
were dispatched by the Third Buddhist Council to Burma to revive
Buddhism. This would suggest that Buddhism had been in existence
in Burma for some time. Whilst the accuracy of this account has been
questioned, its possibility cannot be denied outright, and there is hardly
any other legend so widespread in the Buddhist tradition of Burma
and held with such deep conviction. There is a Burmese tradition that
Buddhism came to the country through the good offices of two Mon
merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika, who were graced by the Buddha with
come hair from his head and who enshrined the hair on the top of the
Singuttara Hill, at the place where the famous pagoda, Shwe BeBe
dace Amongst other traditional accounts D a
the E Beers Bune 5 p ET a Buddhaghosa,
tele GeO of the Pali canon in the century, EA

aid to have been born in Burma, went west to eyton,

533

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

finally returned home with a complete set of the Pali Tripitaka, Whilst
the historicity of the episode is obscure, the Burmese chronicl
insist on its reality.

Outside the Buddhist tradition, the earliest reference to Buddhism
in Burma is found in the Chinese chronicles of the third century, which
mention a Buddhist kingdom of over one hundred thousand families and
several thousand monks in Lin-Yang in central Burma. Chinese interest
in Burma was awakened because, during the Han dynasty, parts of the
land had fallen under Chinese overlordship, and occasional military
expeditions were sent from China. After the collapse of the Han rule,
China relaxed her hold on Burma.

Despite Chinese domination of large parts of Burma for centuries,
the foundations of Burmese civilizations as we now know it were not laid
until the arrival of Indian cultural influences, and there is no evidence
of Chinese influence on Burmese civilization whatsoever. Except for
its Buddhist content, Chinese culture remained alien to Burma. The
Burmese claim that the beginnings of their culture and civilization
came with the Sakyan migration from India. According to the Burmese
legend, Taganng, their first capital, was founded in Upper Burma by
Sakyan princes from Kapilavastu. The Chinese texts also observe that
the Indians’ arrival laid the beginnings of Burmese civilization, and that
whilst Buddhism was strong in central Burma, Hinduism had made some
progress in southern Burma.

Indians settled along the coast in Burma and inward on the river
‘The Periplus refers to Sino-Indian trade through the wild Sesatai people
who possibly lived in the north of Burma, between China and Assam:
Some of the Sanskrit place names mentioned by Ptolemy in the second
century have been identified with places in Burma. Although his
descriptions, especially of the interior, suffer from mistakes, he gives P te
names in abundance, sometimes as if he is enumerating numbers like s
mathematician. The ports of Takkola and Vesunga appear to be P oen
Takola and Besynga. Ptolemy speaks of the Irrawaddy Delta asit me
the beginning of the second century. He refers to Kirrhadia, beyond the
mouth of the Ganges, in which the finest cinnamon was to be found, is :
abo; E which lived the Tiladai people (variously spelled). These P B
we s ed as the Kiratas or the Cilatas mentioned in an inscrip"?

es Strongly

534

Se

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

discovered at Nagarjunakonda. They inhabited the regions now known
as Arakan and Lower Burma and were converted to Buddhism about
250 by monks from Tambapanna.

Although Indian culture must have travelled to Burma well before,
possibly in, the pre-Christian era, the evidence of Indo-Burmese cultural
contact from about the fifth century onwards is definite. Its greatest
impact came in the beginning before the Burmese national genius had
attained maturity. “Ihe basis of her script, her literature, her art, her
thought, her religion, Burma owes to India, and a fair number of her
economic products.”””

The people of Burma are broadly divided into three racial groups, the
Mons, the Burmese, and the Shans. Today the Burmese are by far the
largest group, but the Mons, who are related to the Khmers and who once
occupied wide tracts in Lower Burma and the Malay Peninsula, are the
earliest known people in Burmese history. Originally they held most of
Thailand and, in Burma, the eastern plains from Kyauksu to the sea, and
thence to the Isthmus of Kra. Pegu remained their main centre of power
and activity until 1757. The Burmese belong to the same racial stock as
the Tibetans, Nepalese, and other peoples of the Himalayan region. The
exact date of their immigration to Burma is not known but by the ninth
century they had become the dominant power in Upper Burma. When
they arrived, the Buddhist kingdom of Pyu with its capital at Sri Ksetra,
was flourishing, and after-the overthrow of the Pyu in 832, they settled
at Kyauksu, where they adopted the language, religion and culture of
the Mon. Later, they founded the kingdom of Arakan but their main
centre was Pagan (Arimaddana).

The Shans, related to the Thais, came after the Burmese and acquired
principalities in Upper Burma. They share the Buddhist culture of the
Burmese. The Mons were often persecuted by the Burmese during the
mediaeval and early modern periods, and were forced to flee to Thailand
in large numbers. Today they are relatively small in numbers, mainly
concentrated near Moulmein, and have more or less assimilated with
the Burmese.

The Mons were, however, an accomplished people; it was they who
Save Burma its writing and its religion. They were possibly the first to
Come into contact with Indian culture in the first century through the

535

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

seafaring Telinganas of the Andhra-Pallava country of South India Tihe
earliest Mon inscription found on a pillar at Lopburi in Th
the Pallava script of the fifth century.

So far only the Pyu capital site, about five miles from a
been worked with any thoroughness. Archaeological finds, ranging from
about the beginning of the sixth to the end of the tenth century, comprise
numerous Buddhist monuments, stone and bronze statues, terracotta
tablets with inscriptions, and reliquaries. The earliest relics are fragments
of the Pali scriptures discovered at Moza and Maungun, on the Pyu
site. Dated approximately 500, these are written in a script resembling
the Kadamba script of South India of the same period. They were first
discovered in 1897 and then supplemented by further finds at Hmawza,
including a manuscript of twenty gold leaves and stone statues of the
Buddha, bearing imprints of Gupta style. Some of these statues carry
inscriptions in Pyu and Sanskrit. These remains indicate that by this time
Buddhism was widespread and well established in Burma, that Pali was
known and understood—certainly in the capital city—and that Buddhism
was fed and nourished from the Andhra-Pallava region of South India
from centres such as Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Kanchipuram, and
Kaveripattinam. It is significant that all these places were intimately
associated with the Buddhaghosa tradition.

Epigraphic documents point to the prevalence of the Theravada
School of Buddhism, stressing the doctrinal and metaphysical aspects
more than anything else. Although Buddhism in Burma at this time was
predominantly Theravada and was greatly influenced by the emergence of
the Theravada Buddhist centre at Kanchipuram under the commentator
Dhammapala, evidence is also found that Mahayanism, which pr obably
came from eastern India, also existed there.

Kings of the Pyu dynasty and others bore the Indian titles of Varma"
and Vikrama: for instance, Surya Vikrama (died in 688), Hari VaN
(654-695), and Jayacandra Varman. Their capital, Sri Ksetra, was pi ;

according to Indian cosmological beliefs, like an image of Indra's 9
Sudarsana—also called Amaravati—on the summit of Mount Met
with thirty-two main gates and a golden palace in its centre. The divisio”
of the Pyu kingdom into thirty-two provinces with the king pres! om
over them would even suggest that the entire layout of the empire W?

ailand is in

Prome, h

-536

sUVARNABHUME: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

organized as a replica of the heavenly realm of Indra. The Pyu country
was mentioned by the Chinese scholars, Hsiian-tsang and I-tsing, in
the seventh century as a Buddhist kingdom. The Chinese chronicles
of the T'ang period provide further evidence of the flourishing state of
Buddhism in the Pyu kingdom.

In addition to various Buddhist objects, images of Vishnu, Siva,
Ganesa, Brahma, and other Hindu gods have been found at Hmawza,
Mergui, and over a wide area of Burma. In Prome, ruined stupas and
other objects going back to the sixth century have been discovered. One
of the stupas is a majestic structure rising from five superimposed terraces.
The stone figure sculptures attached to these temples and the terracotta
votive tablets recovered from the debris of their relic chambers reveal
influences not only of the contemporary Pallava art of South India, but
also of the Gupta style of the north.

The principal southern Indianized neighbours of the Pyu were the
two Mon kingdoms of Pegu (Hamsavati) and Thaton (Suddhammavati),
where Hinduism and Buddhism flourished side by side. Sometime
before the eleventh century Thaton became a very important centre
of Buddhism. There is also some evidence of a Hindu dynasty, Sri
Dharmarajanujavamsa, ruling Arakan from 600 to 1000.”

Earlier, to the north of Prome, a debased form of Tantric Buddhism
seems to have prevailed: the Ari cult amongst the Mrammas, a
Tibeto-Dravidian tribe who were a somewhat uncouth people and
had set up a kingdom with its capital at Pagan. In 1044, Anawarhta
(Aniruddha) ascended the throne of Pagan, and thus began a new and
distinguished era in Burmese history. Our knowledge of the Burmese
and their culture from the eleventh century onwards is more reliable
and unbroken.” Anawarhta openly endeavoured to destroy the Ari cult,
and himself embraced Theravada Buddhism from a Mon monk, Shin
Arhan (Dharmadarsi). A patron of art and culture, he built numerous
temples and monasteries with the zeal of a new convert. He began work
on the Shwe Dagon (or Shwe Zigon) Pagoda which was completed
during the reign of his son, Kyanzittha (1084-1113), and he imported
Complete copies of the Tripitaka from Ceylon. In 1057 he even declared
war on the Thaton Mon king, Manuha, who had refused to give him
canonical texts. Manuha was defeated, and Anawarhta returned with

537

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

thirty-two white elephants laden with sacred texts, Buddhist relics
and monks. ;

The results of the sack of Thaton were of great import
and art in Burma. From now onwards Theravada Buddhism became the
principal religion of the state, with Pali as the language of the Scriptures,
Burmese law came to be based on the Manusmriti as interpreted and
modified by Buddhist teachers. The Burmese adopted the Mon alphabet,
and the great influx of craftsmen from Thaton to Pagan ushered in
an era of religious and educational reform which lasted for over two
centuries.

‘There were many features of Hinduism in the prevalent form of
Buddhism at Thaton, including the place of prominence given to Hindu
deities in temples. This led G. E. Harvey to call it a form of Buddhism
which was largely Hindu in spirit. The artists from Thaton influenced the
building of temples in the Pagan kingdom. In the Bidgat Tail Library
built in the twelfth century to house scriptures from Thaton, ten Hindu
avataras are reproduced with the Buddha as the ninth, and the building
is dedicated to Vishnu.

During the twenty-eight years of his reign, Kyanzittha carried on the
work of his father. He built numerous temples and stupas, including the
great Ananda Temple, and restored the famous Mahabodhi Temple
at Bodhgaya in Bihar, where the Buddha had attained enlightenment.
Since Buddhism was declining in India at the time, this restoration was
most opportune. By the end of the eleventh century, the Pala dynasty
of eastern India, under whose rule of three hundred and fifty years both
Buddhist and Hindu art had flourished, and the Nalanda University had
risen to great fame, was drawing to an end, i f

The Ananda Temple at Pagan with its glittering gilt spire is one °
the most beautiful sights in Burma. On the outside there are fifteen
hundred plaques illustrating the Jataka tales, each with an inscription $
Pali or Mon, and inside the aisles there are eighty niches with A
of the early life of the Buddha. ‘These were made by Indian artists 01 y
artists following Indian styles and models, and with Indian inspiratio®
Kyanzittha, whose mother was Indian, patronized Hinduism as ase
had many Brahmans amongst his advisers. Kyanzittha’s reign is reg" r
as the most creative age in the history of Burma. After Kyanzhitta’s dea™

ance for religion

. 538

sUVARNABH UMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE
his son, Alaungsithu, came to the throne. He, too, was a great temple
builder—and built the temple of Thatbyinnyu at Pagan, which, according
to Harvey, dominates all others in majesty of line, and which was built
after the model of contemporary temples in North India.

In the last quarter of the twelfth century, a significant episode
occurred in the history of Buddhism in Burma when it was split by the
establishment of a Ceylonese order of monks by Capata. From then on,
Ceylonese Buddhism was the chief influence on the religion of Burma.
Ceylon at that time had witnessed a revival of Theravada Buddhism under
Parakrama Bahu I, and for the next four centuries was looked upon with
the utmost veneration by other Theravada Buddhist countries such as
Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia. During these centuries Indian trade
with Burma had been as brisk as ever. An inscription at Pagan alludes to
a Vishnu temple built by Nanadesi merchants and to a gift made to the
temple in the thirteenth century by some Malabari merchants.

Whilst Buddhism was declining in India, many Buddhist monks
crossed over to Burma, taking Pala art and Tantric Buddhism with them.
But this Burmese link with India was weakened when the Turki-Afghan
rulers took over northern India. Burma herself was not in a very stable
condition. In 1287 Pagan fell to Mongol invaders, and Burma lapsed
into a state of political disintegration, prolonged anarchy, and confusion.
Buddhism suffered in the general decline. The Sangha split up into sects,
and although pagodas were built, none of them could rival even the
lesser temples of Pagan. This condition lasted until the second half of the
fifteenth century when Dhaddacedi ascended the throne; a more stable
Kingdom was set up, and religious reforms were introduced, restoring the
Sangha to its former prestige and power. From now onwards, Buddhism
was firmly entrenched in Burmese society and although there were
schisms on trivial matters, its ascendancy has never been questioned.

‘The rulers of the later dynasties, such as the Toungoo (1531-1752) and
ae Alaungpaya (1753-1886), were devout Buddhists, and Buddhism and
its culture continued to grow in Burma, making notable contributions to

world Buddhism. During the reign of Mindon, a remarkable statesman
al period when British

Buddhism made
religious studies

who ruled his country most wisely at a critic
eee on Upper Burma was continually mounting,
ther progress in Burma. Under Mindon’s patronage,

539

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

were pursued with increasing vigour and zeal, and some of the best
of Burmese Buddhism were produced. Emulating the tradition of Asoka
Mindon summoned the Fifth Buddhist Council to make a redaction of
the Tripitaka. The Council met at Mandalay from 1868 to 1871 unde
the direction of the King himself, and the text adopted w.
729 stone slabs, which are still carefully preserved. This text formed the
basis of the revision of the Tripitaka carried out under the auspices of
the Sixth Buddhist Council held in Rangoon during 1954-1956,
Buddhism not only dominated the cultural life of the people but
played a significant role, at times decisive, in the political history of
Burma. It helped to unify the peoples of Burma by bringing the Mons,
the Burmese, and the Shans together into one national religion, culture,
and consciousness. It encouraged the growth of art, education, literature,
and social and cultural life. Although Burmese culture absorbed other
influences, Buddhism represents the crystallization of Burmese national
tradition. It inaugurated a society in Burma based on equality of

social standards; few societies enjoy such democratic social life as does
Burma.

Works

T
as incised on

Thailand

The story of Siam, or Thailand as it is now called, is unique in that
although the country has a long history, the Thais, who dominate it today,
have a common history of only about seven centuries. The Thais came to
Siam in the thirteenth century, having been driven out of their former
home in southwestern China by the military campaigns of Kublai Khan.
They had founded in Yunnan around the seventh century a power an
kingdom, Nanchao, which played an important role in the history ©
Southeast Asia until their expulsion.”

__ Nanchao was in close proximity to the Indianized Pyu kingdom,

and lay on a route between India and China at a time when intercourse
between these two countries was active. Hence, it had been expose

to Indian culture for centuries. Buddhism was popular in Nach?

-Two bells with Buddhist inscriptions in Chinese and Sanskrit that hav’

been dated about the eleventh century have been found there. Brahma

_ advisers to the į overnment are referred to in their folklore. There we“

eon Nanchao. The most important Thai kingdom ®
Fee 5 40.

f
|
|
{
Í
|

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Yunnan was Gandhara; one portion of it was also called Videharajya.?”
Their capital was known as Mithila, and the king, entitled “Maharaja,”
was reputedly descended from Asoka. ‘The people of Nanchao used an
alphabet of Indian origin, and, according to a local legend, Avalokitesvara
came from India and converted the people to Buddhism. Names of places
and symbols in Yunnan were associated with Buddhism: for example,
the sacred hill Gridhra-kuta, the Bodhi Tree, and the Pippala Cave.
According to a tenth-century Chinese traveller, there was even a local
tradition asserting that the Buddha attained enlightenment in Yunnan.
Writing in the thirteenth century, Rashiduddin not only calls the country
Gandhara, but asserts that its people came from India and China.”
The Pali chronicles and the Chinese annals also endorse the view that
the Thais, although ethnologically related to the Chinese, had acquired
more Indian culture than Chinese before they were forced out of their
homeland. In northern Siam, where they settled first and which was
close to southern China, there is no trace of Chinese influence either in
customs, dress, literature, art, or religion.

Even before the Mongol incursions, some of the Thais had begun to
move out of their state and slowly penetrate the adjoining areas to the
south and west, such as the Pyu kingdom, the Shan states, and the Sip-
Song Panna, a no-man’s land to the northeast of Siam. According to the
standard Siamese history of North Siam, the Pongsawadan Yonaka, the
first Thai settlement of any importance was made in 860 when a Thai
Prince named Brahma crossed the Mekong and founded a principality at
Chai Praka in the district of Cheingrai, in far northern Siam.” In 1215
the Thais founded the principality of Mogaung to the north of Bhamo,
and eight years later, that of Mone (or Muong Nai). It was, however,
after the conquest of their kingdom by the Mongols in 1253, that their
mass migration from Nanchao commenced.

By the time these Indianized Thai people reached Siam, the country
had been in close cultural contact with India for more than a thousand
years. Whilst there is archaeological evidence indicating Indian influence
on early Siamese culture, specific references to Siam in the ancient
literature of India are rare. Frequent references to Suvarnabhumi,
wee do suggest that the ancient Indians were familiar with the

Menam Valley. ‘The Siamese scholar, Prince Damrong, whose res earches

541

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

were based on Siamese annals and inscriptions as well as on Chines
chronicles, has even suggested that Suvarnabhumi was actually :
southern Siam, near the mouth of the Menam Chao Phya. Coedes i
also of the opinion that this region with its many toponyms like Supan
Kanburi, U Thong, all meaning gold or the land of gold, perhaps rel,
better claim than Burma to represent Suvarnabhumi.

Thailand comprises four geographically distinct areas—the northern
region embracing the circle of Bayab, the central region formed by the
valley of the Menam River, the northeastern plateau region, and the
southern peninsular region. The earliest inhabitants of Siam were the
Lavas—some of whom still survive in the northern hill ranges—and the
Mon-khmer, who stretched from present-day Cambodia through the
Menam Valley and the Malay country as far as Pegu. All these regions
were deeply influenced by Indian culture. The north felt the impact for
the first time when it was conquered by the Mons of central Siam in
the eighth century and it seems likely that central Siam may have come
into direct contact with Amaravati even before the Mons arrived from
Lower Burma, as is suggested by the archaeological finds at Pong Tuk
and Phra Pathom (or Nagarama Pathama). The Buddhist symbol, the
dharmacakra, has been found amongst the relics at Phra Pathom which
suggests that Buddhism possibly had reached Siam even before the
Christian era, because the dharmacakra belongs to a very early period of
Indian art, when the Buddha was not represented in human form but
only by symbols. The specimen found at Phra Pathom may not be so
old, but it is not later than the first or second century.

The northeastern area had come under the influence of the Hindu
kingdom of Funan at a very early period. Later, when northeastern Siam
fell to the Khmers, its Indian character was further strengthened. The
southern part of Siam, however, was most directly and continuously 1"
contact with India. Large numbers of Indian merchants, settlers, aD
teachers came to southern Siam in successive waves either directly sy
India or through Burma. Southern Siam is full of remains of na
culture, most prominent of which is the city of Nakhon Srithammam™
The traffic along the trade routes between India and Siam ee
from time to time. It seems that the earliest Indian immigrants t =
came by ‘sea from the Amaravati region. Having landed at Martaba®

542

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

ney proceeded towards the south through the Three Pagoda Pass
into southern central Siam. Later, during the Gupta period, when the
capital was at Pataliputra, the routes from the ports in Bengal, such as
Tamralipti, were busier. Southeast Asian travellers proceeded either to
Martaban or to the Burmese ports of Akyab and Arakan, and thence
overland to Siam via Thaton. During the period of Pallava ascendancy
in South India, the route from Kanchi either straight to Mergui and
Tenasserim, or to Takuapa in the Siamese part of the Malay Peninsula
was commonly used. In addition, there was the sea route around the
island of Singapore up to the Gulf of Siam where Bangkok stands today,
although long, this route was often used.

Numerous excavations have yielded extensive evidence of Indianization
and some remarkable pieces of art. Because Siam increasingly assimilated
Indian art and culture into a local pattern, relics of pure Indian descent
are more ancient than those reflecting local influence.

The most ancient objects of culture excavated in Siam in 1927 at
Pong Tuk and Phra Pathom are all relics of Indian culture. Pong Tuk,
situated less than thirty miles west of Bangkok on the Mekong River
very close to Kanburi, was on the route to the Three Pagoda Pass leading
to Martaban, and was thus in direct contact with Amaravati. Indian
settlements flourished on this site for several centuries. Excavations
have revealed a variety of objects, including the remains of a temple
sanctuary and other buildings, a small statue of the standing Buddha
and, curiously, a Graeco-Roman lamp of Pompeian style. The discovery
of this lamp in Siam has been regarded as indicative of collaboration
between Indian and Greek navigators east of India. Coedés considers
the lamp to be of Mediterranean origin, not a copy made in Asia,
and places it in the second century.” This date is also confirmed by
the small bronze statue of the Buddha in the Amaravati style of the
second century. In addition, other objects, such as votive tablets of the
Bodhgaya style and bronze Buddha images, show Gupta influence and
could not be later than the sixth century. Since no Khmeror Thai oe
ee ie been found on this site, and all the ae Ce
aan = a that a centre of Buddhist worship noe at Fo: ee
ere ‘ Christian era up to the sixth or sevent ae Brea

ave come even earlier if the representation of the u

543

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

by the dharmacakra found at Phra Pathom is taken into consideration,
‘The very early inhabitants of western Siam must have Principally
remained Buddhist for a long time, for there are no early Hindu relics
found in the area. However, Indian cultural influence continued to
grow throughout; first through its contact with Amaravati in South
India, and later with neighbouring Dvaravati in the Menam Valley, an
Indianized kingdom of Siam of which Pong Tuk may well have been
a part. Hstian-tsang mentions that Tu-ho-lo-po-ti (Dvaravati) was a
flourishing kingdom between Sri Ksetra (Pyu) in Burma and Tsanapura
(Khmer-lang) in Cambodia.

Situated in central Siam, Dvaravati was founded by the Mons
or Talaings from Lower Burma in the second or third century. It
became prominent after the decline of Funan. By the seventh century
Dvaravati had become important enough to dispatch embassies to
China and extend her frontiers from the borders of Cambodia to the
Bay of Bengal. This kingdom flourished until the rulers of Kambuja
extended their supremacy over the Lower Menam Valley in the tenth
century. The bronze Buddhas of Amaravati style, Gupta images from
the Ganges Valley, ruins of stupas and monasteries, and tablets bearing
Buddhist beliefs written in Pallava script have been found there. The art
of Dvaravati shows clear Gupta affiliations. The Hindu and Buddhist
images of Vishnu, Siva, and the Buddha appear to reflect the art of
Sarnath, Mathura, and Ajanta. Even after the Thais had broken the
Mon power and set up their ascendancy, Dvaravati retained something
of its Hindu character. Under the Thais the city came to be known as
Ayuthia, which remained the Thai capital until it was captured and
destroyed by the Burmese in 1757. 3

‘The archaeological and sculptural remains belonging to the succeeding
period are somewhat scanty; they nevertheless point out that during the
eighth and ninth centuries the people of central Siam practiced Theravada
Buddhism, and that their art was influenced by Gupta art. As they wee
politically a part of Kambuja (Cambodia) during this period, it seems oe
were further influenced by Hinduism, of which many traces are om

One of the oldest sites in central Siam, eighty miles north of Bangko ;
is Lopburi (Lavo), a minor city at present but for centuries @ centr
of Mon-Indian culture which later became the capital of the ceci

544

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Siamese province of the Kambuja Kingdom in 1002. Here are ancient
monuments, including the temple of Maha-tat, and standing images of
the Buddha, one of which bears a Sanskrit inscription.

One of the most remarkable sites in the centre of Siam, is Srideb
(Crip-tep) , where statues of Hindu deities bearing Sanskrit inscriptions
of the fifth or sixth century have been discovered. The art of Srideb is of
excellent quality and provides a link between Indian art and the art of
Indochina. Quaritch Wales considered Srideb the oldest known Hindu
temple in Indochina. Le May, however, has some misgivings, not because
of its architectural conception, which is definitely Hindu, but because
of its laterite base.

In peninsular Siam, as well as in Malaya, evidence of the existence of
hitherto unsuspected Hindu states and settlements has recently come to
light, and some Buddhist and Hindu images have been excavated. Present
knowledge is based on archaeological finds and Chinese notices, which
do not easily lend themselves to interpretation. Of the several states in
this region mentioned by Chinese annals, one was Tambralingo with its
capital at Ligor, modern Nakhon Srithammarat. A Sanskrit inscription
of not later than the sixth century has been found here. As the Pali
Niddesa refers to this kingdom, it must have been flourishing in the
second century. Although it was a strong Buddhist centre many Hindu
telics have been unearthed here. Three sanctuaries—the Bot Prahm
with numerous Sivalingas, the San Pra Isuon containing bronze statues
of Siva, Parvati, and Ganesh, and the Na Pra Narai with its renowned
statues of Vishnu—are amongst the excavations made at this site. The
Political history of this state is obscure, but the ambitions of one of its
Princes initiated an era of Indian culture which has been designated the
Cambodian period of Siam.

According to the Liang Shu, there possibly existed in the region in
ee 2 second Century, a Hindu state, Laie Se
ane mbassies to China. This may have been the Lankasu

aay and Javanese chronicles, located on the east coast of the Malay

eninsula, south of Ligor.’
a of Kra, in addition to oa ae
haiya pee harvest of archaeological finds. The Va ae
e Sri Vijaya period is constructed according to the classic

545

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indian architectural principles of si/pa-sastra. An exquisite black bust of
Lokesvara, inspired by Pala art, has been found in this vicinity.

Towards the end of the tenth century, Lopburi was seized from
the reigning Mon king by a prince from Nakhon Srithammarat, thus
bringing the whole of central and southern Siam under one authority,
In 1002, his son, Suryavarman I, captured the throne of Kambuja at
Angkor during a civil war. Although he came from southern Siam, his
dynasty claimed kinship with the Khmers, and Suryavarman claimed
the Khmer kingdom as his right. Thus central and southern Siam were
united with Kambuja under the Khmer Kingdom of which northeastern
Siam was already a part.

The Khmers or Cambodians had begun to penetrate the northeastern
part of Siam from the seventh century, but it was not until Khmer
ascendancy had been established that Siam felt the full impact of
Khmer culture. Both regions belonged to the same Indianized culture.
‘The Khmers patronized both Buddhism and Hinduism, leaning a little
more to one or the other at different times. Whilst their temples at
Panom Rung and Muang Tam are clearly Hindu in character, one of
the scenes portrayed on a large square stele is of a Buddhist character
which resembles reliefs from Bharhut and Sanchi.

Whilst the Khmers were ruling northeastern and central Siam, the
Thais began to penetrate the land. They settled first in the north as a
dependent state of the court at Angkor. Their migrations, unimportant
at first, became formidable by the middle of the thirteenth century. One
of their attacks led to the foundation of the Shan states in Upper Burma,
and in 1229 the kingdom of Sukhotai was founded. The rise of Thai pow"
is associated with Rama Kamheng (or Gamhen), who succeeded to z
throne about 1276. During his reign the Thai kingdom was ex eit
to include both Pegu and Nakhon Srithammarat, and political relations
with China were opened up. A patron of Buddhism, Rama oa
was well versed in both the Tripitaka and Hindu ritual and astrology: s
built a school for Hindu and Buddhist priests, and dispatched a mission
to Ceylon to fetch Buddhist relics and texts. Buddhism prosp ae A
Sukhotai, and it received impetus from Ceylon when the Thai 3 K
persuaded the Ceylonese monk, Mahasami Sangharaj, to come to f
Rama Kamheng was an admirer of Parakrama Bahu, the king of Coy"

546

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

and sought to emulate him. Under Kamheng’s influence, Buddhism
and Pali literature were firmly established in Sukhotai and even the
neighbouring Hindu kingdoms came more and more into the Buddhist
orbit. Hinduism then declined, leaving its mark only on ceremonies and
customs. The Sukhotai School of Buddhism is often characterized as the
blending of the Chiengsen School, which may have come from China,
and the Theravada School of Ceylon. In Sukhotai’s many temples and
remarkable bronze standing Buddha images can be seen the beginnings
of Thai art, which is a fusion of the art of the Khmers and the legacy
which the Thais brought with them from the north.

By the middle of the fourteenth century, Sukhotai declined and the
centre of power moved to Ayuthia. A Thai prince crowned himself king
in 1350 under the title of Ramadhipati, and he is traditionally regarded as
the first king of Thailand. Religious contact with Ceylon continued and
during the Ayuthia period, particularly the fifteenth century, Buddhist
activity greatly increased under the influence of Sinhalese Buddhism.
Politically, it was a period of wars with Burma on one side and Cambodia
on the other. The Khmer kingdom was destroyed by the Thais in the
fifteenth century, reducing it to Siamese vassalage; the Siamese captured
Angkor three times, and finally annexed it in 1460. The Siamese victory
over Angkor in 1431 led to an influx of Cambodian scholars and
priests. The Siamese king, taking advantage of Cambodian scholars and
Statesmen, reorganized the state administration and remodelled the court
ceremonials on Cambodian lines, a reform that survives even today.

The Thais were ethnologically Chinese and the chronicles of the Sui
dynasty give details of the court life at Nanchao, which resembled that
of the Chinese. Many words are common to both Thai and Chinese; for
instance, most of the Siamese numerals are of Chinese origin. The only
obvious Chinese influence on Siam today lies in architecture, particularly
the tiers of toofs of Siamese temples. Very little else of Thai culture can be
a to China. In fact, it appears that even when they ae in Ro
thes = had not absorbed much Chinese culture. For iz Be ca an
Bae ae settled first and which was close to southern z ae z AA
C 4 nS influence in customs, at, literature, or oe pre
roe without the medium of Buddhism, has not gener y

hinese Peoples, even in Ching’s immediate neighbourhood. The

547

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Thais do not appear to have been very culturally advanced at the time
they came to Siam. When they found themselves face to face with the
highly advanced kingdom of Cambodia, they were simply awe-stricken
and fascinated.

It is scarcely surprising that the Thais took to the prevalent form
of Mon-Khmer culture enthusiastically and in time made notable
contributions of their own to it. Today Thailand is replete with temples,
‘The present-day capital, Bangkok, alone has many famous temples, some
of which are amongst the most impressive monuments in the whole of
Asia; for example the Wat Phra Keo, the temple of the Emerald Buddha,
next door to the royal palace. The main object of worship in this temple
is a single-stone jasper image of the Buddha which is dated to a very
ancient period, and around which numerous legends have grown. The
image was first discovered in 1436 at Chiengrai in northern Siam. Wall
paintings, bas-reliefs, and other pieces of sculptural art enhance the
artistic beauty of the temple.

Although Thailand is predominantly Buddhist, there are traces of
Hindu influence, visible mostly in the court ceremonials. The kings of
Sukhotai recruited their court Brahmans from Cambodia and adopted
much of the Cambodian Hindu court ritual. Later, during the Ayuthia
period when Hinduism in Cambodia had fallen into decline, Brahmans
were obtained from southern Siam. Until recently, the court Brahmans
cast horoscopes, consulted omens, and performed worship of both Hindu
and Buddhist deities. Ceremonies of coronation, tonsure, cremation, and
lesser rites connected with agriculture were developed by the Brahmans.
‘The Siamese call their coronation by its ancient Sanskrit designation,
the rajabhiseka. The entire complex of coronation ceremonies, such as
homa (sacrifices to Fire), purificatory rites, ablutions, anointment, and
the actual coronation, are closely modelled on Hindu rituals, and are
presided over by the Brah Maha Raja Guru. The Buddha, as well as pis
chief Hindu deities, are represented in these ceremonies. The ae
ceremony in Siam is a rite of initiation of youths, corresponding to the
Hindu Cudakarma Mangala, which is a very important Hindu Samskar
Cremation, an old vedic rite, is the only means of disposal of the re" a
of deceased royalty in Siam, and the chief method of disposing 9f
their dead. The people of Thailand take these ancient ceremonies yey

548

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

seriously, which partly explains why state ceremonies are still conducted
by Brahmans.

` ‘There are some eight families of court Brahmans in Thailand who
claim that their ancestors came originally from the sacred Indian city
of Varanasi. As no Brahman women appear to have come with them,
they intermarried with local people. Today they speak only Siamese, and
have a very limited and corrupt knowledge of Sanskrit. Amongst their
texts, which are mostly mantras, they have a Tamil hymn written in an
Indian character.

Some of the domestic ceremonies performed in Siam are of Hindu
origin. The royal title is Rama, a Hindu avatara, and the royal temple
at Bangkok contains illustrations from the Ramayana. Hindu festivals,
such as Dashahara, commemorating the victory of Rama over the demon
king Ravana, are still observed in Thailand. In Chi Mai Sankranti (called
Songhurant) is still observed as the New Year's Day. The Thais, like the
Hindus, still believe in Vishnu or Narayana (Phra Narain), and Mahadeva
or Siva, and dislike the asuras (asus) as the enemies of the devas.

‘The Siamese lent their own ideas to Buddhist sculpture. This led to
the development of the typical Siamese image of Buddha, in the form
of a slender figure with flame-crowned oval face wearing a strange all-
pervasive smile, and to the distinctive pagoda style which is a unique
combination of Indian inspiration and Chinese architecture.

It is not always possible to separate the Indian influence in Thai
language and literature from the Siamese genius. The Siamese alphabet,
Consisting of forty-four consonants and thirty-two vowels, is derived
directly from the Kambuja alphabet which, in turn, owes its origin to
the alphabet of the inscriptions of southern India during the sixth and
eighth centuries. Numerous Thai words are taken directly from Sanskrit:
for instance, akas, rath, maha, racha (raja), cakra, sathant (sthan). The
Pronunciation of the language is, of course, very different.

Siamese fiction and mythological literature have drawn freely upon

ae stories, Their religious literature is almost wholly Buddhist.
fates works, such as the Ramayana, the ee
; akuntala have formed the basis of some of the outstanding
‘amese literature. The Ramayana, known in Siam as the Ramakien (or
“makirti), is regarded as a Siamese classic. Knowledge of this work is

549

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

as essential for a cultured Siamese as Homer used to be for an European
: all classes of
people. The epic and Puranic literature of India constituted the Principal

source of inspiration not only for Siam but fi

The characters of Rama and Sita are known everywhere by

or the whole of Southeast
Asia. It provided the themes for classical theatre, shadow the
marionette shows.

atre, and

Indian influence is clearly seen on Siamese dance, drama, and music,
Many of the themes of Siam’s various dance-dramas (lakhon-ram) are
drawn from Indian mythology: for example, the story of Savitri and
Satyavan. Many Thai musical instruments closely resemble those of India,
Unlike India, dancing is an integral part of the social life of Thailand, and
the ancient plays and tales from Indian epics, which are almost dissociated
from the artistic world of India, are continually staged in Thailand. The
Siamese dance is generally performed in a very slow and steady motion,
as it was done in ancient days in the presence of royalty.

‘The Siamese legal system is directly descended from the Manusnmiti
The Hindu Dharmasastras provided the framework for Siamese justice.
‘The earliest available legal corpus dates from 1805, but many of the earlier
collections of manuscripts were destroyed when Ayuthia, the capital of
Siam at the time, was sacked by the Burmese. The first volume of this
work is justifiably entitled the Phra Dharmasastra.

Indochina

Indochina is divided into several interlinked regions with distinctive
characteristics, and her states throughout the course of history have been
subjected to periodic boundary changes and foreign interference an
domination. These factors have rendered her culture complex, rich, and
varied, giving her the quality of diversity in uniformity. J

In the north is the delta of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) which ha
direct sea contact with India and played a significant role in D
Buddhism to China. South of Tonkin, divided by an almost impene™ ‘
chain of mountains, is Annam (southern Vietnam), where the KIJE
son culture developed, followed by one of the earliest and most bala
Southeast Asian civilizations, Champa. West of Tonkin lies Laos, oor
of which is Cambodia. Both these countries have been important as
of contact between Indian and Chinese culture.

550

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Because of the almost insurmountable geographical barriers, Indochina
has been isolated from the mass of the Asian continent. The only overland
route to India lay through Burma over the difficult mountains of Assam.
The journey over the Bhamo Pass to China was also tedious. Travelling
up the rivers meant reaching the inhospitable wilderness of Yunnan and
Szechwan. However, the sea routes with both India and China were open
and carried most of the traffic.”

Our knowledge of the history of Indochina, before the arrival first
of the Chinese and then of the Indians around the beginning of the
Christian era, is very fragmentary. The Dong-son culture flourished
mainly along the coastal belt of Annam, developing remarkably between
the fifth and second centuries B.c. This was the period when China was
vigorously expanding her frontiers, and had come to dominate Tonkin.
Consequently, China influenced the art and culture of Dong-son,
especially on the eve of the Christian era. It was, however, not until
Indian culture entered the scene, that Indochinese civilization got a real
start and gathered momentum.

Indian and Chinese cultures have met in other areas but not on such
alarge scale as in Indochina, where they interacted with a vigorous local
culture. Whilst China ruled over Tonkin for long periods, India only
touched on the southern coasts of Indochina and vanished from the scene
in about the fifth century when her seafaring activity practically came to
an end. But in that short space of time the peoples of Indochina were so
inspired by Indian culture that they voluntarily accepted it and in turn
created new civilizations of profound originality: “China dominated,
while India scattered the seed, and between them they were to shape
the double aspect of Indo-China.”

The oldest and most important of the Indianized states was Funan
occupying the lower valley of the Mekong, roughly corresponding to
Modern Cambodia and South Vietnarn.™ Funan was possibly the result
ofa confederation of tribes. Finot suggests that Funan is a Chinese
variation of the old Khmer word nam (meaning mountain), panom in
modern Khmer. The Chinese texts on Funan were first collected and
aac E aena by Pelliot, and Coedès, as in many me pan
a ner archaeology, initiated the serious interpreta :

ogical evidence. Precise information concerning the peopie

551

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of Funan and their civilization is still lacking. The discovery of Indian
objects together with objects of advanced Dong-son style suggests very
early Indian contact. However, it is generally agreed that civilization
began with the arrival of Indian traders. Funan was rich in all that Indian
merchants were looking for and, in addition, was an ideal halfway house
on the sea journey to China.

A Chinese writer, Kang Tai, who visited Funan in the middle of
the third century—the period of the oldest of four Sanskrit inscriptions
found in that country—reports that an Indian Brahman, Huen-Chen
of Ho-fu, led by a dream, landed in Funan, married a local princess,
Lien-Ye, and founded the kingdom in the first century. A variation of
this story is found in the Cambodian annals. This literary tradition is
confirmed by a seventh-century inscription from Champa” wherein the
Indian is identified as Kaundinya of the Somavamsa. Under Kaundinya’s
successors, Funan’s domination spread over most of the neighbouring
lands by the third century, and diplomatic contacts were established
with India and China; one of Funan’s missions visited India in the
third century. It is said that the direct descendants of Kaundinya were
overthrown about 200 by the commander of the troops, Fan-cheman,
who founded the political greatness of Funan.

Until the fifth century the history of Funan is fragmentary, but
enough is known to suggest its increasing Indianization. About 357, for
instance, it is known that an Indian was ruling Funan. Local Sanskrit
inscriptions, supported by the History of the Liang Dynasty which provides
precise dates and facts, tell of the arrival of another Indian Brahman,
Kaundinya-Jayavarman, who ruled over Funan between 478 and 514.”
With the assistance ofan Indian monk, Nagasena, who carried statues of
the Buddha and other gifts to the Chinese emperor, he cultivated good
relations with China, seeking Chinese help to defeat the neighbouring
Chenla. Although the kings of Funan professed Saiva atena
Nagasena reported to the Chinese emperor that both Hinduism an
Buddhism were flourishing in Funan. The Funanese monks were We
versed in Sanskrit and some of them went to China and translate
Buddhist texts into Chinese. Std

Rudravarman, the son of Jayavarman, ascended the throne A ast
and ruled for the next twenty-five years. During his reign he sent aoe

552

/ OS RD ET

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

six embassies to China. He was an ardent devotee of Vishnu, and the
last great king of Funan. He was responsible for the first great work of
sculpture preserved in Indochina. After a prolonged struggle, Funan was
conquered by the neighbouring Indianized state of Chenla.

The country was wealthy, and its trade, stretching from Rome to
China, was brisk. Even the Chinese were full of praise for Funan’s
material prosperity. According to them the country was overflowing with
gold, silver, pearls, and spices. Considering that the Indians had already
developed techniques of irrigation and land reclamation itis possible that
they were responsible for the agricultural prosperity of the land.

Not much of the art of Funan has survived. The Funanese archaeological
site, Oc-eo, has produced various important objects, including a gold
medallion, dated 152, bearing the effigy of Antoninus Pius. The Roman
medallion was found with various Hindu objects, notably intaglios and
seals with Sanskrit inscriptions of the same and following periods. The
medallion is striking evidence of the close Indo-Roman trade relations,
which were one cause of Indian exploration of Southeast Asia.

Influence of Gupta or post-Gupta architecture is found in many
Funanese buildings, and numerous statues of the Buddha and Hindu
gods, such as Vishnu and Siva, gold ornaments, tin amulets with symbols
of Vishnu and Siva, and merchant's seals with inscriptions in Sanskrit,
have been excavated from sites in Funan. Some of these pieces were
directly imported from India and others were copied locally from Indian
models. A Buddha head discovered at Ba-the, clearly of Gandhara
inspiration, is perhaps the oldest Indian object. The images of Harihara
and Ardhanarisvara, found in southern Funan and now preserved in the
museum at Phnom Penh, are brilliant examples of sculptural art, both
conception and execution.

Funan inscriptions are in pure, flawless Sanskrit. Their content shows
that Indian religion, philosophy, and mythology were widely understood,
and that the secular knowledge of India, such as phonetics (sabda), logic
(nyaya), and political theory (arthasastra), were studied in Funan.
whi hampa, on the coast of Annam, was another Indianized state, about

ich more information is available. It constantly clashed with the nearby
oe colonies established in Tonkin during the Han period, and han

€ historians frequently refer to Champa. The kingdom (called Lin

553

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

yi) is first mentioned in 190-193. The name Champa is clearly Indian
whether it was named after the capital of the Anga country in the lower
Ganges Valley, or as Sastri suggests, after the Cola capital of the

S:
name.*” The Chams were probably of the same Indonesian stock PN
founders of the Dong-son culture further to the north.

Situated on the main sea routes from India and Java to China, andat
the foot of spice-bearing mountains, Champa soon attracted the attention
of Indian traders, and played a significant role in spreading Indian
culture in eastern Asia. Sri Mara was the first Hindu king of Champa,
and established his dynasty about 200 over an extensive area, including
Tonkin and part of northern Annam. Champa maintained close relations
with Funan, a fact which must have been largely responsible for the
penetration of Indian influence there. Since the early history of Champa
is reconstructed from Chinese sources we have the Chinese derivation of
the names of Champa kings. They all begin with Fan, such as Fan-hiong
and Fan-wen, which is possibly a corruption of the common Indian royal
suffix, Varman. Fan-wen, who had expanded the frontiers of his empire by
a vigorous, aggressive policy, died in 349. His grandson, Fan-hu-ta, was
probably the kin referred to in the Sanskrit inscriptions as Bhadravarman.
He was a noted commander and scholar. He dedicated a temple to Siva
at Mison which was called Bhadresvarasvami and became the centre of
royal worship in later centuries. It is said that Bhadravarman abdicated
his throne to spend his last days on the banks of the Ganges.

Champa passed through various dynasties, and war with China
continued intermittently, particularly during the third and fourth
centuries. This was a period of political unrest in China, which probably
gave Champa the opportunity to expand into Chinese territory. Howeveh
once China was unified under the Sui dynasty towards the end of the
sixth century, Champa was attacked and its power broken by the Chinese
emperor. The Chinese took back- with them the golden tablets of eigh iso
kings of Champa and 1350 Buddhist works. Champa continued as 4
tributary state of China, but it never recovered its old power.

Recent excavations in Tra-Kieu, the most ancient capital of Champ F
have revealed ample evidence of Indian influence in the form of HE
and Vaisnavite shrines and bas-reliefs. The earliest iiep or
in the region and possibly the whole of Southeast Asia, is the Vo

554

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

inscription written in a South Indian script and dating from the second
or third century. The most ancient bronze statue found in Champa is that
of the Buddha of Dongduong (Quang-nam) which is one of the most
beautiful specimens of Amaravati art; even a principality in that area was
called Amaravati. Inscriptions of Bhadravarman, both in Sanskrit and
Cham, have been found; they belong to about 350 and are the earliest
inscriptions found in Champa proper. This bronze Buddha image of the
Amaravati School indicates that Buddhism had obtained a footing in the
country by the third century, and in 605 the Chinese captured more than
thirteen hundred Buddhist monks. I-tsing also alludes to the prevalence
of Buddhism in Champa. Mahayana Buddhism was possibly most
generally practiced, as it was occasionally patronized by the Kings.

During this period, remarkable sculptures and original brick temples
were created which are notable for their decoration and ornamentation.
‘The doorways and pillars are adorned with an incredibly intricate stone
foliation of leaves, buds and flowers, inset with medallions of anchorites
and celestial dancers. Three groups of temples, Mi-song, Ponagar, and
Dongduong, are very famous. In the day of their splendour the Chams
were Sivaites, and Siva, his Sakti, and his two sons, Ganesa and Skanda,
Were prominent amongst the gods worshipped. Champa statues followed
Gupta models, not only in subject matter but also in technique, which
was simple, dignified, and majestic. Sanskrit inscriptions, one of which
carries a date of the Saka era, have also been found.

The beginnings of Chenla, the Indianized kingdom that demolished
Funan and later blossomed into the Khmer Empire, are obscure. Chenla
is the name of the Kingdom as found in the Chinese texts, but the
derivation of the name is not known. Chenla was certainly in existence
by the end of the sixth century, and was beginning to emerge in the
northeastern parts of Cambodia along the middle reaches of the Mekong
Whilst Funan was flourishing. It is possible that until the end of the fifth
e was confined to the tableland watered a us nay
e x assac region was dominated by the r E

unan and had its capital at Sreshthapura, near Vat Ehu.
ect eet ei a
aie a Kambuja royalty, however, traced its des : ;

ayambhuva, the king of Aryadesa (India) and the apsar

555

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Mera, which is another version of the recurrent motif of foundation

kings are
a's freedom
from Funan. About the middle of the sixth century, when the last king of

Funan, Rudravarman, died, the king of Chenla, Bhavavarm

myths of royal families in South India. The two earliest known
Srutavarman and his son Sreshthavarman, who secured Chenl

an—possibly
a grandson of Rudravarman of Funan—undertook to conquer Funan
with the help of his brother Chitrasena. Their partial conquest of Funan
made Bhavavarman the undisputed master of the Mekong Valley; his
successors completed the conquest of Funan. It seems that the Khmer
people of Chenla, unlike the people of Funan, did not cultivate the
deltas, but preferred to depend on rain in the high lands. Hence, they
were possibly attracted by the rich plains of southern Funan.

A good deal is known of Bhavavarman from inscriptions, one of which
written in Sanskrit verse, announces the consecration by the King, ofa
Sivalinga named Tryambaka. Another describes him as King of Kings,
strong as Mount Meru. When he died in 598 the unification of the two
kingdoms was well advanced, and he has been described, therefore, as
the founder of the glory of Kambujadesa. After his death, his brother
Chitrasena ascended the throne as Mahendravarman. He built numerous
Siva temples throughout his domains. All the known inscriptions of
Mahendravarman resemble Pallava inscriptions of the early seventh
century. In marked contrast to Funan and other Southeast Asian states
which frequently sent embassies to China, Chenla dispatched its first
embassy to China in 616-617, during Chitrasena’s reign.

After Chitrasena’s death, his son Isanavarman ruled over the whole
of Cambodia, Cochin China, and the valley of the Mun River to the
north of the Dangrek Mountains. On the site of the modern Sambor
Prei Kuk (Kampong Thom) on the Mekong River, he founded a ae
capital city, called after his name, Isanapura. It was in this city, ee
served as the capital of the Kambuja kingdom until the ninth cent),
that the art of Chenla, known as the Sambor style, and the early phase
of Khmer art developed. One of his inscriptions commemorates the
consecration of a statue of Harihara and of an asrama for the Bhagavalt
or Pancaratra priests. These inscriptions attest to the power of the king
and the prosperity of his reign, but say little of his conquests.

he
The Kambuja or the Khmer kingdom gradually emerged from !

556

ie aa

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

fusion of Chenla and Funan, and became the most powerful state
in Indochina. It survived for almost seven centuries and attained an
unparalleled height of political prestige and cultural advancement until
destroyed by the Thais in the fifteenth century. At about the same time
this empire emerged, the Pyu kingdom of Sri Ksetra in Burma, the
Mon kingdom of Dvaravati in Siam, and the Empire of Sri Vijaya in
Indonesia were flourishing. The seventh century was a formative one in
Southeast Asia.

Until the end of this century, the Khmer kings concentrated on
consolidating their hold over the lower Mekong region and around
Tonle Sap, Both Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced, with the
former predominating; Saivism appears to have been the court religion.
The worship of Harihara, in which Siva and Vishnu are united in a
single body, was the main feature of this period. Most inscriptions are
in Sanskrit and the literary culture was based upon the Ramayana, the
Mahabharata, and the Puranas.

‘The eighth century is a complete blank in Khmer history; possibly
it was a period of unrest and confusion all over Southeast Asia. But at
the beginning of the ninth century the whole country came under the
authority of Jayavarman II, whose long rule of fifty-two years (802-854)
marks the beginning of the Angkor period and of classical Khmer art. At
this time, inscriptions indicate the Khmer Empire was confined to the
castern and southern portions of Cambodia and Cochin China.

Until the rise of Jayavarman II the capital of the Kambuja was in the
south at Isanapura where the earliest types of Khmer temples are found,
all dedicated to the Hindu religion. Indian models, especially of the post-
Gupta style, were generally imitated, but the wood originals in India have
Perished. Indian influence in early Khmer or Sambor art is so marked that _
some scholars have suggested the artists came from India. The statues are
“xtremely beautiful, but only a few have survived. The most exquisite of
these ate the statues of Harihara, Uma, and Lakshmi in the Phnom Penh
museum. This Sambor phase was one of the most beautiful in Khmer
art, and a worthy forerunner of the brilliant later period.
ere is some mystery about the exact origins of Jayavarman II. He is
2 have been a descendant of an ancient dynasty of Cambodia who
ived at the court of the Sailendras in central Java, and returned to

Said t
had |

557

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

his country steeped in Javanese culture. According to one insc
came from Java to reign in Indrapura but another records that he simply
appeared like a fresh lotus. B. R. Chatterji holds the view that Jayavarman
II did not come from Java in Indonesia but from a place named Java
in Laos,” but Groslier accepts the theory that he did come from Jaya,

ription he

Indeed the impact of the Indianized culture of Indonesia ignited the
renaissance of Cambodia.”

Jayavarman introduced into Cambodia with the help of a Brahman
guru, Hiranyadama, the cult of the Deva Raja (the king-God) which
was somewhat similar to that of the Sailendra King of the Mountain
cult. This cult claimed universal supremacy for the king, and inspired the
period of temple-building in Cambodia. According to scholars, such as
Coedés, the Sailendras had resuscitated the title of King of the Mountain
which had previously been an attribute of the kings of Funan. Ifso, then
Jayavarman was only repatriating something which the Sailendras had
borrowed from his predecessors. Significantly, the proclamation styling
him as the Deva Raja specified that Cambodia was no longer dependent
on Java, and this may imply, as Groslier suggests, that the Sailendras
had occupied parts of Cambodia during the eighth century. Jayavarman
based his power on religion. He organized the state, founding several
capitals—Hariharalaya, modern Roluos, Amarendrapura, probably a
city built around Akyum, and finally Mahendraparvata on the Phnom
Kulen—which provide impressive evidence of his progress. ‘There are
many remains from Jayavarman’s reign at Sambor Prei Kuk, at Banteay
Prei Nokor, at Roluos, and on the Phnom Kulen, the last being the most
important. Excavations on the summit of Phnom Kulen have revealed
a number of temples that were completely hidden by thick forests an
were mainly discovered by Phillippe Stern and Henri Mouhot. In style,
they provide a link between pre-Angkor and classical Angkor art. i

The Khmers were accomplished builders: Jayavarman’s successor È pis d
temples enthusiastically. The cult of the King of the Mountain ee
each king to erect a magnificent shrine to perpetuate his memory: a
arose the complex of Angkor Thom. Yasovarman I (889-901) was ae
of the outstanding rulers of the dynasty, and the founder of a ie
city of Angkor. This covered a much larger area than Angkor ©
which was founded later by Jayavarman VII at the end of the tW°

558

y mme Enea

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

century. These two cities partly overlap, but the former lies outside the
southern wall of Angkor Thom. Yasovarman issued a large number of
Sanskrit inscriptions written in Kavya style and built the Saiva temple
of Phnom Bakheng. Six of his successors ruled during the tenth century
when building activity dominated political events. The last king of
this dynasty was Jayavarman V (968-1001), in whose reign Mahayana
Buddhism prevailed and numerous Buddhist texts were imported from
abroad. He was followed by Suryavarman (1002-1050) from Siam, who
initiated a new dynasty of great kings. Primarily a Buddhist, he is said
to have erected temples of Siva and Vishnu. Cambodia reached its peak
during the reign of Suryavarman II (1113-1152), the builder of the
matchless Angkor Wat, an epic in stone. With the death of Jayavarman
VII (1181-1220) the kingdom began to decline, falling finally before
the advancing Thais.

After the fall of the Khmers in the fifteenth century, the temples
gradually fell into disuse. Their ruins were discovered only in 1860, and
are perhaps the most awe-inspiring to be found anywhere. Scattered
throughout the mountains and jungles of Cambodia in an area of about
ten thousand acres, more than six hundred Khmer monument ruins can
still be counted. Of these, twenty are of major importance. They range
from temples and palaces to reservoirs and bridges, and cover the reigns
of more than twenty kings. The great monuments are near the capital
Angkor Thom, which alone covers an area of two thousand acres; Angkor
is a derivative of the Sanskrit nagara, meaning city, and thom a Khmer
word meaning great.

The ruins of Angkor Thom are the remains of the latest city built
by Jayavarman VII. He planned the whole city to give it a cosmic
meaning, According to Hindu belief the world consists of a circular,
central continent (Jambudvipa, the ancient name of India) surrounded
f ee ee continents. Beyond the oceans an ia ae
E Se the world. In the centre of aes is foe A
ice ed by the moon, sun and other stars. On ae summ. 7

“ity of the gods, encircled by the abodes of eight Lokapalas, the
ro of the world. Buddhist conception is ees
se > : ` differences in detail. Both hold Mount eru as the c

ar universe with concentric zones around it. Thus, a miniature

559

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

image of this cosmological arrangement carries a symbol
both Hindus and Buddhists.
In Angkor Thom the central mountain is the Bayon, the temple of

1¢ Meaning for

the Bodhisattva Lokesvara, the Lord of the Universe, and the city is
surrounded by a wall and moat forming a square almost two miles on
each side. The balustrades of the causeways leading over the moat to
the city gates are formed by rows of giant statues, on one side of gods,
devas, and on the other of demons, asuras, holding an enormous serpent,
Thus, the whole city is a representation of the Puranic story of the
churning of the primeval milk ocean (kshirasagara) by the gods and the
demons, using the primeval snake, Vasuki, as a rope and Mount Men
as a churning stick.

Outside Angkor Thom is the Angkor Wat, covering an area of five
hundred acres. This is the largest and the most impressive temple in the
world. According to Henri Mouhot, who discovered it for the modern
world: “This architectural work perhaps has not, and perhaps never has
had, its equal on the face of the globe.”*" Since his day, countless people,
both admirers and sceptics, have stood spellbound before this majestic
temple of Vishnu. The genius who conceived this temple, like all other
Khmer artists, is unknown to us.

A raised causeway of flagstones, lined by a naga-balustrade, leads
from the main road over a moat to the main gate of the temple. This
gate house, which is a spacious building forming the front part of the
wall that goes around the enclosure, is in itself a remarkable creation.
A paved road 400 yards long leads to the temple. At the base, the
temple is 223 by 242 yards, and its main tower is about 80 yards high:
Structurally it is a three-stepped pyramid. Each storey is punctuated by
towers at the corners and pavilions in the centre. The main tower is u
the third storey. The temple rises steeply in the form of three o
rectangular galleries, each double the height of the preceding one, an i
connected by stairs and intervening open terraces. The innermost po
is dominated by five tall domes, the central one of which dominates y
plain below. The entire building is constructed in sandstone, and if an
wood was used, it has long since perished. tiful

The building has been chiselled with endless bas-reliefs and beat
designs and patterns. Flowers, birds, and dancing maidens decorate

560

SS

, ae oe

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

walls. Hundreds of Khmer artists must have spent their entire lives on
the work, yet it is impossible to detect a single flaw in these acres of
carved panels. The sculptors of Angkor who executed many scenes from
the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and the Harivamsa, must have had an
intimate knowledge of Indian epic literature. Vishnu predominates but
other gods also adorn the temple with their various incarnations and
emanations. Kings are also introduced and the Khmer language can be
seen engraved in some places. Evildoers are shown being condemned
and the virtuous rewarded by Yama with Chitragupta as the keeper of
the records. The outer gallery, running around the whole building, itself
contains a half-mile of bas-reliefs on the back wall, and there are about
1750 life-size apsaras, practically every one in a different, magnificent
head-dress.

Although the Khmers are so admirably remembered for their superb
achievements in art, they patronized all branches of Indian learning.
All the princes received training in Indian philosophy and literature.
A number of persons of apparent Indian origin were present in the
Kambuja kingdom and Brahmans were held in high esteem. For instance,
Hiranyadama came from a janapada in India to teach Tantric texts to
the royal priest, Sivakaivalya. According to a Chinese tradition, there
were a thousand Brahmans in Tuan Siuan, an area in Funan, alone. The
presence of so many Hindus presumably influenced the social structure
of Kambujadesa on caste lines, creating divisions and relationships.
Kambuja records mention four varnas, and the emergence of a new
class, Brahmaksatra, resulting from intermarriage between Brahmans and
Ksatriyas. Other classes were created during the period of Jayavarman V,
such as Khmuk and Karmantara, The Brahmans seem to have enjoyed
“Position of privilege, and their social life, as well as marriage customs
and funerary rites, was much influenced by Indian practices. Although
Hinduism remained the dominant religion, Buddhism also flourished.
In the ninth century, King Yasovarman erected a Saugatasrama for
Buddhist monks. Suryavarman I, who came from Siam, possibly adopted
sao his inscription contains an invocation to 2 as well

Jo a and he was posthumously named Nirvanapa ae a es
ee VII was an ardent Buddhist and the public u i y wm)

ten by him were remarkably extensive. His Ta Prohm inscription

561

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

containing 145 Sanskrit verses expresses his feeling of charity and
compassion towards the whole universe. The magnitude of his resources
and the depth of his religious sentiments can be gauged by the scale of
his donations and charities. About sixty-seven thousand people were
employed in the temples and the revenues from approximately three
and a half thousand villages were given to defray their expenses. More
than fourteen hundred professors and scholars were engaged in study in
these temples, and their daily necessities were supplied. According to
the evidence of his inscriptions, there were about eight hundred temples
and more than a hundred hospitals in the kingdom, that were given over
thirty million pounds of rice every year. Whilst these figures must be
exaggerated, they do give an idea of his devotion to Buddhism. Despite
this devotion, he was “the most arrogant and the most lustful for glory of
all the Khmer kings, attributes in which they all excelled themselves.”?
He built so many temples that it is said he shifted greater quantities of
stone than all his predecessors put together, and put statues of himself
in the chief temples of his kingdoms.

When Buddhism became the paramount religion of Cambodia
is uncertain. It had long been flourishing and occasionally enjoyed
royal patronage, but it was never the state religion and never held a
dominant position. It seems likely that Siam, which was first influenced
by Cambodia, later aided Cambodia’s conversion to Buddhism. The
change was almost complete; today Hinduism is practically extinct in
Cambodia except in a vestigial form in certain ceremonies and festivities.
For instance court Brahmans, called Bakus, perform domestic rituals in
the royal household. These Brahmans, although a survival of Hinduism,
are Buddhists as are other Cambodians; their performance of the royal
ceremonies appears to be rather a matter of profession than of faith.
Hindu deities have been absorbed by Buddhism and relegated 4
subordinate positions, and even the Hindu gods in the great temples, i z
as Angkor Wat, have long been replaced by the images of the Bud z
Numerous Buddhist images have been found in the temple and it app“
that by 1550 it had become a Buddhist pilgrimage place. dian

Unlike some other countries, Cambodia does not minimize a ntry
influence on the local culture. On the contrary, the people oes

generously acknowledge it. For instance, inaugurating the M

562

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Jawah arlal Nehru Boulevard on 10 May 1965, Prince Norodom Sihanouk
recalled the close cultural ties that have existed for two thousand years
between India and Cambodia. He said: “When we refer to 2000 year
old ties which unite us with India, it is not at all a hyperbole. In fact,
it was about 2000 years ago that the first navigators, Indian merchants
and Brahmans brought to our ancestors their gods, their techniques,
their organisation. Briefly India was for us what Greece was for the
Latin Occident.”

Mala rya

Malaya has historically been a meeting ground of diverse races
and cultures. Certainly, the Malay Peninsula, which includes modern
Malaya and southern Thailand, has played a central role in Indian sea
trade with the countries of East Asia, as well as in the transmission of
Indian culture throughout Southeast Asia. Takkola, modern Takua Pa
in southern Thailand, was the first landfall of traders and settlers coming
from India. From here the travellers went on in different directions.
Some crossed over the mountain range to the fertile plain on the eastern
coast and then proceeded either by land or sea to Siam, Cambodia, and
other regions of Indochina, and further east. Others went to Burma
or travelled by land southward toward Malaya or by sea through the
Strait of Malacca to destinations in the Archipelago or East Asia. But
all who wished to travel further east had to negotiate Malaya either
overland or by a circuitous coastal voyage. Ít is therefore not surprising
that this region was much Indianized, and ruins of shrines, images,
Sanskrit inscriptions, and other remains of Indian culture have been
found throughout the Peninsula.

Land communications within Malaya were adequate, including rivers
and elephant tracks through thick jungles. Kedah was connected with

igor in the northeast, and with the east coast region encircled by the
Patani Sai, Belum, and Pergau Rivers. The goldfields of Pahang could be
reached both by land and by sailing down the Kelantan and its tributaries.
€ northern part of Malaya, including part of what is today southern
A D more advanced than the southern ae sie eae
Ain € important places and harbours, such as

» and Takkola, were located in the north close to the trade routes

563

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Southern Malaya also remained in a state of neglect because of the Power
and prosperity of Sumatra.

Malaya’s fortunes have often been subjected to external pressures,
Malaya has been rich enough to attract attention but not powerful enough
to repel unwanted guests. Prior to Western domination, her northern
neighbours, first Funan and later the Thai kingdom, held sway over her
from the south the Sri Vijaya and Majapahit Empires dominated Malaya
for long periods. All these political contacts affected her cultural life.

Of the written records tracing the antiquity of the Indo-M alay contact,
one has to rely again on Chinese chronicles, which refer to Indianized
principalities in the Peninsula, although many of the place names are
not positively identifiable. Ancient Indian literature contains very few
references to Malaya.

In the first or second century, the kingdom of Langkasuka (Lang-
Kia-su, Lang-Ya-hsiu or Tun Sun), mentioned several times in Chinese
chronicles, was founded on the east coast in the neighbourhood of Patani.
‘There is some controversy as to whether Langkasuka was on the west or
the east coast of Malaya, but latest opinion appears to favour the latter
view. More than four hundred years later, in 515, King Bhagadatta (Po-
chi-ieh-ta-to) of Langkasuka sent an envoy, Aditya, to China. During
the sixth century at least three other embassies were sent to China.
References are also found to other states, such as Pan Pan, which was
conterminous with Langkasuka and was frequented by the Brahmans
from India. It was from this state that the second Kaundinya went to
Funan. Southeast of Pan Pan was Kolo (Kolo-fu-sha-lo), placed by
Coedés in the area of Kedah or Kra; this was prominent enough in the
sixth and seventh centuries to attract envoys from China. Chinese record:
speak of embassies coming from Malaya to China in the sixth centuly
and of Indian kings reigning there and using the Sanskrit languas® a

Indian literature also mentions kingdoms, Kalasapura and Kamalan ls
(Karmaranga), which were probably in the Malay Peninsula, Ka
(Kedah), and Pahang. In the Puranas, mention is often made :
Katahadvipa (Kataha), which was included amongst thenine ca
the world across the seas, and to which regular voyages were underti f
from Tamralipti. Various other references to Katahadvipa are r
in Sanskrit dramas and stories. The Tamil epic, Silappadikara™ >

564

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

second century contains a description of tall, roomy ships entering a city
in South India laden with a variety of goods and spices from a Malayan
port called Tondi.

Both Indian and Chinese literature contain references to Kedah,
situated on the west coast, and the most important Indianized principality
in Malaya proper. From the third to the fifteenth century, Kedah was an
important port. A well-known Tamil poem, Partinappalai, of the second
or third century, mentions regular trade between Kalagam, possibly
Kedah, and Puhar (Kavirippattinam). Later, the Chola inscriptions of
the eleventh century refer to Kedah in various forms, such as Kidaram,
Kadaram, and Kataha.

Although the Chinese had become aware of Langkasuka earlier,
Kedah was neither noticed nor recorded until the T’ang period,
presumably because it was not in contact with China. I-tsing was the
first Chinese scholar to refer to Kedah (Chieh-cha), which he visited
in 671. Later, the Arab writers also mention it as Kalah placing it on
the way from India to China, and some mention it as a dependency of
Zabaj, Sri Vijaya.

The remains excavated in the Malay Peninsula generally confirm the
deductions made from literary sources, although much work still needs to
be done. Excavations so far have not yielded any substantial evidence from
the time of the kingdoms of Langkasuka. The Sanskrit inscriptions that
have been discovered do not date back further than the fourth century,
although the literary references fix the date of the Indianized states in
the Malay Peninsula much earlier. Lately, however, some evidence has
been building up to strengthen the conclusions reached from literary
Sources. It was probably an Indian ship that brought an Attic vase of
the fifth century s.c. to Perlis. The Roman beads found at Kota Tinggi
in Johore were probably brought by Indian traders at the beginning of
the Christian era." The remains of a Siva temple excavated by Quaritch
Wales on a low spur of Kedah Peak have been interpreted as an important
link in the transition from the sepulchral shrines of South India to the
Chandis or tomb shrines of Java. Thus it seems that Indian culture was
centuries old in Kedah in the seventh century, and flourishing enough to

oes the centre of cultural diffusion to Java. Malacca also must a
n early Indian centre. A makara fragment built into the wall ofa

565

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Portuguese church must have come from an ancient temple destroyed
by the Christian conquerors.**

Kedah, however, is by far the most important of Malayan sites,
Following the explorations of James Low and later of Evans, made in
1925, Quaritch Wales carried out extensive investigations in Kedah on
about thirty sites. Further archaeological work has been done recently
on these sites by members of the Malayan universities. Of the thirty sites
excavated by Quaritch Wales, eight appear to be Buddhist, as many as
twelve are possibly Saiva and Hindu, and three are the remains of secular
buildings.

The Pallavas founded settlements in Kedah, on the Bujang River,
whose temple ruins have yielded an image of Ganesa and other objects of
Saiva faith. Kedah was an important centre of Indian culture in the fifth
or sixth century; Indians, both Hindu and Buddhist, came continuously
for several centuries to settle, and gradually Kedah became a repository
of Indian art styles and cultural traits which in due course were further
diffused. They came mainly from South India, but many Indians arrived
from other parts of the country. A stone inscription found at Guak Kepah
in Kedah mentions a mahanavika, literally a great sailor, Buddhagupta.
He is described as an inhabitant of Raktamrittika which is identified with
Rangamati, twelve miles south of Murshidabad in Bengal.

Some of the inscriptions testify to the presence of both Hinayana and
Mahayana Buddhists in Kedah in the fourth century. A bronze statue
of Buddha in the style of Amaravati found in Kedah and two Buddhist
images of Gupta style from the Kinta Valley in Perak, belong to the fifth
century. An inscribed clay tablet found near Kedah, which is assigned
to the sixth century, contains three Sanskrit verses embodying somè
Mahayana philosophical doctrines. Two of these three verses have been
found in Chinese translations of Madhyamika texts and all three
found in a Chinese translation of the Sagaramatipariprecha. In the eight
century the Palas of eastern India reinforced Mahayanism in Malaya.

Bruas in Perak is supposed to contain the relics of the ancient le
Nagara mentioned in the Blagden recension of the Malay annals. Hig r
up the west coast, Kuala Selinsing in Perak has been identified by e
as the site of an ancient Indian settlement on the strength ofa Baas
inscription “Sri Vishnuvarmmasya,” found on a cornelian seal.“ Spe

566

sSUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

incorrectly, the inscription is written in boxheaded characters of a South
Indian variety of about the sixth century or earlier; hence, it is generally
regarded as a Pallava seal. This site has yielded many other significant
finds pointing to the existence of a continuous settlement there for several
centuries. These include a remarkable number and variety of beads, some
of which, such as the complicated stone beads, appear to be imitations
of those of India or cultures farther west.

Some important Buddhist relics have also been excavated from Perak,
which has been a rich mining area from ancient times. A fine bronze
Buddha statue from Pangkalan, and another bronze image of the Buddha
mined from a depth of sixty feet in a tin mine at Tanjong Rambutan,
reflect the Gupta style of the fifth century.

In the southwest corner of Kedah, in Province Wellesley, a group of
seven Sanskrit inscriptions probably belonging to the fourth century,
were discovered by James Low at Cherok Tokun in the central part
and four more in the north. From Bidor comes a fine bronze image of
Avalokitesvara with Tantric emblems in Pala style of the eighth and
ninth centuries. Two more bronze statues of the same Bodhisattva, one
of which is a standing four-armed image, have been found in open cast
tin mines at Sungei Siput. A bronze statue representing a Brahman
ascetic found recently at a site in Tinkus Valley, Sungei Siput in Perak,
resembles the effigies of the vedic sage, Agastya, of whom numerous
specimens have been discovered in South India, Ceylon, and Java. Whilst
the Agastya cult was common in Indonesia, this is the first evidence of
its presence in Malaya. Of the six hundred or so beads found at Kota
Tinggi in Johore about eighty are of early Indian origin, more than a
hundred are Roman (probably brought by Indian merchants), one Hittite,
and two Phoenician.

The present political border between Malaya and Thailand is not a
meaningful division in respect to their cultural past. ‘The monuments
Ree Siam, at places such as Chaiya, Takua Pa, SE

marata (Ligor), and Yala (near Patani), are impressive exampi¢s
oes. Indianized art, resembling Pallava or Gupta E Of
ndianized states in the Peninsula the most important was Ligor,

aa Srithammarata, in southern Thailand. It was E a
settlement. Some of the fifty temples that encircled the stupa

567

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

belong to a very early period, yet there are also Brahmans of Indian

an Overland
route from India across the Malay Peninsula. In addition, numerous relics

descent at Patalung, who trace the arrival of their ancestors by
of Hindu origin have been excavated from this area.

‘The history of the Malay region from the eighth century onward is 4
little better known, for it came under the domination of the Indonesian
Empire of Sri Vijaya and the Sailendras, and the ruins of this period,
which lasted almost until the end of the thirteenth century, are found
throughout the Peninsula. In the fourteenth century, when the Indianized
Majapahit Empire displaced Sri Vijaya, Kedah, Patani, and Kelantan
were greatly influenced by Majapahit culture; for example, linguistic
traces in Kedah and the shadow play in Kelantan still contain Javanese
Hindu characteristics.

Although Malaya was in close contact with India for over a thousand
years and Hindu and Buddhist influences were strong, the remains
unearthed are surprisingly few, and Malaya proper has not yielded a
single temple or stupa approximating the splendour of even a minor
structure of Thailand or Indonesia. Perhaps the adverse climate and
corrosive soil took their toll on early structures which may have been of
wood. Moreover, the empires of which Malaya formed a part had their
seats of government outside the Peninsula, particularly in Indonesia.
Another possible explanation of this, as Winstedt points out, is Muslim
iconoclasm: “The Kedah Annals record how on conversion to Islam the
Malays destroyed all the idols they were accustomed to worship, together
with the idols handed down from their ancestors.” Islam is indeed
uncompromisingly iconoclastic and has a long history of image an
temple destruction in other countries, including Indonesia—and anes
itself{—where most of the many statues surviving from the pr e-Muslim
past are headless. ‘od

Indian contacts with Malaya during this period can be better ae
as a part of the whole phenomenon of developing cultures 9 p
Archipelago. Soon after, Islam and Europeans came to Malaya effecti :
deep changes in her life and culture, yet the cultural background of sae
Malaya is distinctly Indianized. Malays still perform many See
which bear the marks of Hinduism; some Sanskrit words are a) ae
in rituals. The Malay ceremony, Melenggang perut, performed 1

568

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

seventh month of pregnancy to achieve the birth of a son, is reminiscent
of a Hindu practice. Various other rituals connected with childbirth
are the relics of an Hindu past. Elaborate ceremonies pertaining to the
student life, laws and customs regulating family life, inheritance and
social behaviour, wedding ceremonies, and temperamental similarities
all suggest the harmonious blending of the two cultures.

Concepts of state and kingship in Malaya, royal titles such as Seri
Paduka, ceremonies connected with coronation, and royal prerogatives are
clearly of Indian inspiration. Malaya’s literature and folklore are deeply
influenced by the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
Her language has many Sanskrit loan words, and until the introduction
of Arabic and, later, Roman script, Indian scripts were used in Malaya
and the Archipelago.

Indonesia

Sea trade between India and East Asia had begun to flourish in the
first century, and Indian settlements had been established in Southeast
Asia; Palembang in Sumatra was a port of call en route from India to
China.

‘The oldest report on Indonesia is found in the Han annals of the
Emperor Wang Mang who ruled China in the first quarter of the first
century. Specimens of Chinese ceramics of the Han period found in
Sumatra endorse the existence of regular contact between China and
Indonesia at that time. A Chinese source mentions an embassy sent to
China in 132 by King Pien (Tiao-pien) of Ye-tiao: the name is a Chinese
transcription of King Devavarman of Yavadvipa (Java Island).

The fact that there was an Indianized kingdom in Java powerful
enough to dispatch an envoy to China in the early second century would
Suggest the prior existence of Indian influence. Believing that Java was
already Indianized by 132 and assuming that this Indianization had only
been effected slowly in the course of many years, G. Ferrand believes
that the beginnings of Hinduism in Indochina and in Indonesia must be
anterior to the Christian era. Fa-hsien, who visited Java about 414 for five
Months, described the country as a stronghold of Hinduism. From Java,
Fachsien sailed for Canton in a merchant vessel which had two hundred

indu traders on board. Less than twenty-five years later, the Buddhist

569

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

monk, Gunavarman, stopped in Java on his way to China and laid the

z d Java of later
periods are numerous and specific in the Chinese chronicles.

foundation of Buddhism there. References to Indianize

Ptolemy’s reference in the second century to Iadadioy certain

ly
represents the Prakrit form of the Sanskrit Yavadvipa. He also mentio

ns
several places in the Archipelago and the Peninsula under their Sanskritic

names. The evidence indicates that Indian civilization had foun
foothold in Java by his time."

da firm

The chief sources of early Javanese history are elaborate local narrative
verses and poems. People in Java believed that Rishi Agastya came
from India and settled there. Usually called Bhatara Guru, Agastya is
an extremely popular legendary figure in Indonesia, and he was widely
worshipped and venerated; numerous reproductions of his image in art
and sculpture are found in the country. According to Javanese chronicles,
twenty thousand Indian families came to Java from Kalinga in the second
century. A century later their prince, Kano, emerged. Various other
Javanese traditions and legends associate the original settlers and their
leader, Aji Saka, with the heroes of the Mahabharata. The Javanese era
commences from Aji Saka in the year 78, the epoch of the Saka era in
India. Another tradition in Java mentions the foundation of a Hindu
state in 56.9

‘The archaeological remains excavated so far are somewhat posterior to
the literary references relating to Indian culture in Indonesia. Amongst
the earliest finds are the images of the Buddha, in the Amaravati style,
discovered at Sampaga in the Celebes; in the south of the Jember
province in eastern Java; and on Mount Seguntang at Palembang =
Sumatra. Sanskrit inscriptions of a King Mulavarman from Kutei in
Borneo, dating from the fourth or the beginning of the fifth Sankt ;
have also been found. These inscriptions are not dated, but their script
closely resembles that of the early Pallava inscriptions of South ne
and the early inscriptions of Champa and Kambuja. The next series ©
inscriptions comes from West Java and refers to a King Purnavarmans
these scripts suggest that they were engraved in the middle of a y
century. Because of its closer proximity to India, Sumatra was p1° 5 dy
the first island visited by Indians in this area, but it has yet to be propery
investigated by archaeologists.

570

oye

O

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

However, in the various parts of Indochina and Malaya numerous
stone inscriptions belonging to the third century, at the latest, have
been found. These inscriptions, covering a period of centuries, bear
recognizable family likeness, and are usually composed in Sanskrit and
written in a South Indian script. The earliest of these inscriptions is the
rock inscription from Vo-Canh in Champa, written in Sanskrit, dating
from the third or even possibly the second century. It is therefore plausible
to assume that before Indian culture spread as far as Champa, it may have
found a foothold in lands nearer to India, such as the Malay Peninsula,
Sumatra, and Java.

The earliest chief Indianized kingdom in Indonesia was Sri Vijaya
with its capital at Palembang, in Sumatra. The Chinese called it Shih-li-
fo-shih (San-fo-tsi, Kan-te-li or, briefly, Fuche). It is generally believed
that this kingdom was founded in the seventh century, but Majumdar
believes, as does Ferrand, that it was founded in or before the fourth
century, reaching greatness at the end of the seventh.” In any case, it
is in the last quarter of the seventh century that the first clear allusions
to this kingdom are found in epigraphy and literature. Quaritch Wales,
whilst admitting the existence of Sri Vijaya in the seventh century,
suggests that it was supplanted by a powerful kingdom called Javaka,
under a Mahayanist dynasty of the Sailendras newly arrived from India.
Whether Sri Vijaya and Javaka were one or two states, the cultural pattern
of Indianization remained the same.

Sri Vijaya ruled over an extensive area stretching from Java to the
Malay Peninsula and southern Siam from at least the seventh to the
twelfth, possibly the thirteenth, century. A group of inscriptions found
at Palembang, some of them dated 683-686, refer to the conquest of
Jambi (Malayu) and the island of Bangka. An inscription dated 775 from
Nakhon Srithammarat refers to the might of the king of Sri Vijaya and
to several Buddhist temples built there under the king’s command. Thus,
ìt seems that by the eighth century Sri Vijaya dominated the whole of
Sumatra, West Java, and the greater part of the Malay Peninsula. Control
of the northern part of Malaya and the two straits added to the increasing
: ae of Sri Vijaya. Indian traders who chose ea sea ae oe r
R se one of the two straits, and those who took the over a a

na and China had to cut across the northern part of the Matay

571

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Peninsula. According to Coedes, Sri Vijaya succeeded to tl

hegemony of Funan and control of the southern area.
Material progress accelerated the growth of learning and

stayed in Palembang for six months in 671 learning Sanskri

e commercial

art. I-tsing
t grammar,
and again fourteen years later, on his return from India, spent four years,
copying and translating several Sanskrit texts into Chinese. He was so
impressed by the Buddhist studies in Palembang that he advised Chinese
monks to go through a course of preliminary learning there before
proceeding to India. He himself came back to Palembang for the third
time with four of his colleagues from Canton and wrote his two Memoirs
there. At the time, Buddhist monks in Sri Vijaya numbered more thana
thousand. From the seventh to the eleventh century Buddhism remained
most powerful in Indonesia, attracting famous scholars from India,
such as Dharmapala, a scholar from Nalanda University, who visited
Indonesia in the seventh century. Atisa Dipankara (eleventh century), the
monk who became the head of Vikramasila University and inaugurated
the second period of Buddhism in Tibet, went there in his early life to
study Buddhism.

Whilst Sri Vijaya was at the peak of its power, another kingdom
was emerging in central Java, the Sailendras, with whom Sri Vijaya had
friendly relations at first. Before the rise of the Sailendra kingdom in
the eighth century, there were several Indianized states in Java. Two of
these, called by the Chinese Cho-po and Ho-lo-tan, sent embassies to
China in the fifth century. Amongst the earliest archaeological remains
of West Java are four Sanskrit stone inscriptions of a king Purnavarman
of Taruma who reigned in the fifth century. As these inscriptions refer
to his grandfather as a rajarshi, and another ancestor as a rajadhiraja,
it would seem that an Indianized society flourished in Java during the
fourth and fifth centuries.

Chinese historical works mention various kingdoms in Java
other islands, although not all of these are easy to identify. The most
important kingdom in Java during the T’ang period was Hoan i
Chinese variation of the Indonesian Kaling or Kalinga, which was é s3
the name of a region on India’s east coast. About this time a m
Indians from Kalinga are said to have emigrated, and it is periei z
they settled in a part of Java; they certainly were numerous €n0US
name the state after their home area.

572

and

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Attempts have been made to connect the Indian Kalinga with the
origins of the Sailendras in Java. It is argued that the two ruling dynasties
of Kalinga, the Gangas and the Sailodbhavas, were defeated by the
Calukya dynasty of the south in the seventh century. The defeated rulers
thereupon set out for the renowned islands of the east and founded the
Sailendra Kingdom. Nilakanta Sastri, however, finds this theory open
to objection and suggests that the Sailendras may be an offshoot of the
South Indian Pandyas. Various other theories of their precise origins
have been advanced but none is clearly established. It seems that in Java
there were numerous centres of power, usually referred to as kratons,
which meant king and his court. The more powerful kratons struggled
for political supremacy, and out of this conflict emerged the Sailendra
dynasty in central Java, in the eighth century, which was to attain not
only great political power but also a degree of cultural advancement
seldom surpassed in history.

The accounts of Arab writers, such as Ibn Khurdadhbih, Abu Zayd
Hasan, Al Masudi and Al Biruni, testify to the political, commercial,
and cultural accomplishments of the Sailendras. The Sailendra Empire
is referred to by the Arab writers as Zabag (. Zabaj), from the empire of
Maharaja; some scholars believe that the term refers to the Maharaja of
the Sri Vijaya Empire. The most detailed account of Zabag is by Abu
Zayd Hasan, who wrote about 916, basing his account on one originally
written by Sulayman in 851. Sulayman recounts various islands forming
part of the kingdom and speaks of the great fertility of its soil and of its
dense population. The king is described as so rich that every day he threw
a solid brick of gold into water saying “there is my. treasure.” His daily
revenue amounted to two hundred mans of gold, fifty of which came from
cock-fights. The Maharaja was the overlord of a number of islands and,
according to Al Masudi, his Empire was so large that even the fastest
vessels could not complete a round trip of it in two years.

The data to reconstruct the history of this Empire are inadequate,
and the details of its relationship with Sri Vijaya are not clear. We do
es a whether the Sailendras were a branch of Sri ve eet

y had taken the latter under their protection, OF whether they s
a Peaceful coexistence. It is, however, generally accepted that a Sailendra
Prince, either having been driven out of his home or by virtue of kin ship;

573

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

became the ruler of Sri Vijaya at Palembang in the ninth cen
dynasty lasted there until the thirteenth century.

‘The Sailendras brought the greatest part of the Malay Archipelago
under one central authority. Their Empire extended as far as Champa
and Kambuja; the Sailendra fleet raided the distant coast more than
once in the eighth century. This was a troubled period in the history of
Southeast Asia, especially Indochina, and our knowledge of it is more
obscure than that of others. W hy these naval raids were carried out is not
clear. Why did the Sailendras temporarily bring Cambodia under their
domination? It is known that Jayavarman had declared the independence
of Kambuja from Java in 802, and although it is not certain, there are
reasons to believe that the successive Sailendra expeditions and incursions
caused the collapse of the royal dynasty of Champa.

‘The Sailendras were evidently a great naval power, and their relations
with the fellow-Buddhist Pala Kingdom of Bengal were quite close; as
early as 782, Kumaraghosha of the Pala Empire was the royal preceptor,
guru, of the Sailendra kings. A copper plate inscription, found at
Nalanda and dated about 860, records the erection there of a monastery
by King Balaputradeva of Suvarnadvipa. Visitors and scholars from
Indonesia to Nalanda became so numerous that a separate monastery
had to be built to lodge them. A Chola inscription from South India
records that two Sailendra kings, Chudamanivarman and his son,
Sri Maravijayottungavarman, constructed a Buddhist monastery at
Nagapattana (modern Negapatam). In both cases the respective Indian
kings granted lands and villages to these monasteries. !

The Sailendras maintained good relations with the Chola rulers of
South India. The Cholas were also a great naval power, and by the
beginning of the eleventh century under Rajaraja the Great (985-1014)
and his still more powerful son, Rajendra Chola (1014-1044), ne
became the paramount power in southern India. The friendly relations
between these two powers deteriorated in the eleventh century, ane
two Chola inscriptions of 1024 and 1030 speak of Rajendra’s military
expeditions and conquests of several countries in Southeast Asia including
Sri Vijaya and the Sailendra Kingdom. Another Chola king, Virarajencr®
(1063-1070), is also said to have led a successful military incursion ue
Sailendra. The conflict between the Cholas and the Sailendras, wit

tury and his

574

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

med throughout the eleventh century, considerably crippled the
ower of both.

The Sailendra period is one of the most important eras in the history
of Southeast Asia. Buddhist art, inspired by the Mahayanism and
Tantrism of the Palas, reached a new peak. Indonesian civilization
during the Sailendra period became a model for other Southeast Asian
countries. The Sailendras introduced a new kind of script, Devanagari,
from northern India, built world famous monuments, such as Lara
Jonggrang and Borobudur, and gave Malaysia a new name, Kalinga.
Whilst Mahayana Buddhism had its votaries at the court and amongst the
governing classes, Sivaism was prevalent amongst the common people;
whilst Borobudur represents the peak of Buddhist art in Indonesia, the
temple of Lara Jonggrang at Prambanan is Saiva.

In the tenth century the scene of power and civilization moved to
eastern Java. Just before the Sailendras emerged in central Java as a
supreme power, a powerful dynasty was ruling there with its capital at
Mataram, and, under its ruler Sanjaya, had led successful expeditions to
Sumatra and Cambodia. Sanjaya is said to have been a great conqueror
and he was deified as Divine Sanjaya. An inscription found at Changal in
the district of Kedu mentions that Sanjaya had erected there a monument
for a Sivalinga in 732. After his death, central Java was conquered by
the Sailendras and his successors were pushed eastward. In the ninth
century, however, it appears that Mataram had shaken off the political
supremacy of the Sailendras in eastern Java, which became a prominent
region where Indian culture found a strong repository for the next five
hundred years.

Mpu Sindok, who ascended the throne in 929, was the first known
king of the house of Mataram to settle in eastern Java, under the regal
title of Sri Isana Vikrama Dharmottungadeva. By this time, the culture
and civilization in central Java had visibly declined. Sindok is an eminent
name in Javanese history, and the later kings eagerly sought to trace their
descent from him, but the exact accomplishments which gave him this
Prestige are lost to history. 5
, pies Mahendradarns he ge oh

of Bali, Udayana. Their son, Airlingga, who rule :
ataram Kingdom from 1010 to 1049 was one of the greatest kings of

575

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Java. He brought the whole of Java under his authority and established

According toan
inscription, he built a dam to stop the Brantas River from flooding. He

was regarded as an incarnation of Vishnu, and at Balahan, where he Was
cremated, there is a fine statue of Vishnu on his mount, Garud

commercial and political relations with other countries.

a. He was
a patron of literature, and Kanva’s poem, Arjunavivaha, the first book of

its kind, was written under his patronage.

Before he died, he divided his kingdom between two of his sons,
The two resulting states, Kadiri and Djanggala, survived in eastern Java
until the beginning of the thirteenth century, when a new dynasty,
Singhasari, emerged. Kadiri was the center of intellectual activity during
this period.

Singhasari was founded by Ken Angrok, who styled himself as an
incarnation of Bhatara Guru; he has been the subject of many popular
legends. But the dynasty attained its highest power and prestige under the
tule of Kritanagara (1268-1292), who is portrayed in literature in striking
contrasts. A Javanese chronicle, Pararaton, describes him adversely, whilst
a well-known historical poem, Nagara-Kritagama, hails him as an expert
in Buddhist scriptures and polity. He was certainly a devout Buddhist and
practiced Yoga and Samadhi. Marco Polo, who visited Java during this
period, described Singhasari as a prosperous kingdom ruled by a great
king. Kritanagara initiated an aggressive imperial policy. He subdued
Sumatra, Bali, parts of Borneo, and the Malay Peninsula. Emboldened
by his successes, he even picked a quarrel with Kublai Khan, but before
the Chinese punitive expedition could reach Java he was dethroned by
an internal rebellion led by the governor of Kadiri.”

From the chaos and unrest that followed the rebellion in Singhasat
in which the Chinese expedition played an active part, there aup
the kingdom of Majapahit in central Java under Vijaya, a son-in-law 0
Kritanagara. Vijaya, having subdued other contenders for the throne,
proclaimed himself the king of the whole of Java in 1294, assuming
the regal name of Kritarajasa Jayavardhana. The most eminent name .
this dynasty, however, is not that of a king, but of a commander, er
Mada, who became the prime minister and the effective ruler from a
to 1364. He extended the authority of Majapahit over Sumatra aie
he completely demolished the weakened Sri Vijaya kingdom as W°

576

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

dominating Bali and other islands. He is believed to have initiated the
“favanization” of Bali.

The Empire attained the peak of its power under Rajasanagara
(1350-1389), commonly known by his personal name, Hayam Wuruk.
He ruled over all the principal islands in the Archipelago and the large
part of the Malay Peninsula. He established cultural and trade relations
with neighbouring countries, such as Kambuja, Champa, China, Siam,
and India, which sent a large number of Brahmans and Sramanas to his
capital. After his death the kingdom disintegrated and supremacy over the
various islands, including Sumatra and some states of Malaya, gradually
passed to Ming China, which became the suzerain of the Archipelago.

The Majapahit Kingdom, however, continued until 1520. About the
middle of the fifteenth century Islam had begun to penetrate Java; the new
religion gradually became powerful enough to bring about the downfall
of the last great Indianized kingdoms in Java, as of others in Indonesia.
Only a small Hindu state of Balambangan retained its independence,
and continued to do so for two and a half centuries. Today only Bali still
professes a kind of Hinduism, called Hindu-Balinese.

Soon the arrival of European merchants, soldiers, and missionaries
changed the pattern of Indonesian society. In fact, Western culture came
to Indonesia at about the same time as Islamic culture, but whilst the
former scarcely affected the indigenous culture of Indonesia at first, the
latter quickly began to take root in Indonesian soil. The explanation of
this contrast may be that whilst Western culture was completely alien and
had come to Indonesia in association with political domination, Islamic
culture was familiar and completely unattended by foreign military force.

Indian Muslim traders and teachers, chiefly from South India,
embarking at Gujarat and Malabar, carried Islam to the Malay
Archipelago, They were mainly interested in profit, and were not religious
zealots. They were not willing to sacrifice life or property for the holy

cause, nor were they the instruments of an Islamic Church. Even teachers

who arrived later from Egypt, Mecca, and Arabia came in search of
Indian—Hindustani,

ey through rich patrons. Their language was
Gujarati, Malayalam, Tamil, or some other—and the books they brought

were Indian versions of Arabic or Persian originals. From these Indian
versi z à
‘tons, translations into Malay were made.

577

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Islam made easy conversions, mainly because of the simplicity of
aditions
ated and varied
philosophies had admitted a variety of ugly traditions and superstitions

over a period of centuries; Sufism also found a ready

its beliefs, in marked contrast to the complex doctrines and tr
of Hinduism and Buddhism, in which very sophistic

reception in
Indianized Indonesia. Whilst Islam made religious converts, it could
not impose a new culture, for Indonesian culture was far too developed
and distinctive itself at the time. Change of religion was bound to affect
the existing religious cultural character, but even in this sphere Islam
accepted many features of Indonesian culture. For instance, Islamic fasts
in Indonesia are still called puwasi upavasa, a term of Sanskrit origin;
a Muslim teacher is called guru; and Muslim sultans bear titles such as
Maharaja, Srinara, and Mandulika.

Today, Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, yet
Indonesian culture is perhaps the only one which Islam has not penetrated
beyond the surface. In Malaya, too, the culture has few Islamic features
but the Malays at least have Muslim names, whilst most Indonesians
have retained their original names. Islam is not a culture in the true
sense of the term, but it has certain recognizable features, acquired from
the Arab and Persian cultures, which it has always sought to impose
on its adherents. The French traveller, Jules Leclercq, having seen Aajts
(Muslims returned from Mecca) joining in the worship of ancient Hindu
images, remarked that the advent of the Muslim faith has not alienated
the Javanese from their old beliefs.°2

Indonesian language, art, social customs, legal and political systems,
literature, folklore, and philosophy, were affected by Indian cultural
currents. “To gain a correct idea of the extent of the influence of Hindu
culture in the islands that came under it,” says Sastri, “one must contrast
Sumatra, Java and Bali with the islands farther east which were not
touched by this influence. It will then become clear that all the elements
of higher culture, the form of organized state-life, trade and industry, art
and literature were practically gifts of the Hindus to these islands, n
that the archipelago falls easily into two divisions—one which accepte
the new culture and advanced with it into civilization, and the other

which lagged behind.”3

578

/ gpg arn tne ee.

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

The Kawi language, Indonesian in essence, is full of Sanskrit loan
words. Lhe oldest extant script in the Malay Archipelago is the so-called
Pallava script—the language being Sanskrit—named after the Pallava
dynasty. By the eighth century Java had evolved its Kawi or Old Javanese
script from the Pallava, which was given the Sanskrit appellation of
Akshara Buddha, meaning Buddhist letters. Another Indian script used
in the Archipelago was an early form of Devanagari, possibly introduced
in the eighth century as a result of the close intercourse between the
Palas and the Sailendras. Madurese, Sundanese, and Balinese scripts also
derive from the Pallava. Batak writing in central Sumatra has undergone
much simplification perhaps owing to the writing materials used—bark
or sapwood—but it is also derived from the same source. Peoples in the
south of Sumatra, the Rajang and the Lampong, use writing closely
resembling the Kawi. The ancient alphabets of the Bugis and Macassars
of the Celebes were derived from an Old Malay or Sumatran script of
the Pallava family. The alphabets used by the Tagalogs and others in the
Philippines, when the Spanish first met them in the sixteenth century,
were likewise closely allied to the Sumatran script, although the number
of characters had dwindled considerably. Thus at one time Indian scripts
were in use in the whole of the Malay Archipelago. With the introduction
of Islam they were partially superseded by the Arabic script, and with
the coming of the Europeans by Roman characters.

Numerals generally remain unchanged in a language affected by
foreign influences, but Indonesians adopted various Indian numerals.
Before the arrival of the Indians, Indonesians had their terms for 1-10,
100, and 1000. Numbers higher than that, however, were represented
by words meaning “innumerable,” “obscure,” or by borrowed terms.
The Sanskrit /agsha, which means 100,000, is used throughout the
Archipelago to denote 10,000, so when the problem of appropriate
terminology for 100,000 arose, the Archipelago adopted the Sanskrit
Word koži representing 10,000,000.

Whilst the Sanskrit laksha and koti are given a lower value than the
original, Sanskrit ayuta, 10,000 assumes the higher value of 1,000,000
(uta) in Malay and Javanese, and 100,000 (samyuta) in Tagalog: je
Possible, however, that yuta is derived from the Sanskrit niyta, meaning

579

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

a very high number. In Balinese, 4a-/aksa stands for 10,000, ha-~hor for
100,000, 4a-yuta for 1,000,000, and Aa-dara (in Sanskrit bhara Means
weight, a large quantity) for 10,000,000. The lower Indian numerals that
have been adopted in the Archipelago are mostly used in compounds,
thus pancanana (five-faced), or dasaguna (tenfold).

‘The formation of ordinals from the cardinals is interesting, In India,
prathama (foremost or first) was excluded from the list of ordinals
because the functions of the first are different from those of other ordinal
numbers. The Malay differentiates between its first and the following
ordinals by using pertama (prathama) with yang preceding it for first, but
for all others it merely uses the prefix ke before the original cardinals;
thus 4e-dua is second, ke-tiga is third, and so on.

Tagalog expresses fractions by the use of the term bahagi (part)
from the Sanskrit bhaga (share). In Malay bahagi means to share or to
apportion. As for the numeral co-efficient iji, which also means seed in
Malay and some other languages of the Archipelago, the origin may be
sought in the Sanskrit ija (seed). ‘The Javanese siji (one) is short for sa-
wiji meaning one or a certain. Wiji alone stands for piece in counting, or
for seed, and ina literary sense for offspring. Likewise in Malay it means
not only seed or pip but also testicle. The Javanese wiji may share the
same origin with the informal. Dayak ie (one), which may represent a
word etymologically cognate with the Sanskrit bija. As for the connection
between bija and biji, it is common to find the Sanskrit “a” being changed
into “i” in the languages of the Malay Archipelago.

Language is merely a vehicle of ideas. Whilst its introduction was
dictated by utilitarian reasons like the need to communicate, it soon
assumed the additional role of transmitting ideas and cultural traits. Some
Sanskrit inscriptions suggest that Indian philosophical and literary texts
were carried to Java from very early times, although there is no reco?
of it. The most ancient texts composed in Indonesia appear to peat 3
the fifth century; they deal mainly with grants of land, etc. Later, un
the patronage of the great empires, Indonesian literature flourished, 2.
Indian epics, such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were tt anslate
and adapted in the Javanese language. Jman

Several recensions of the Ramayana exist in both verse ana Pr A
Indonesia. Episodes from it are used as themes in the popular Indones

580

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

wayang-kulit (shadow play). The Indonesians have made alterations in
Valmiki’s version, combining it with material from other Indian versions
of the Ramayana and with their own imaginative embellishments.
Some scholars, such as Stutterheim, believe that some of the traditions
preserved in the Indonesian version may even be anterior to Valmiki’s
Ramayana. The Rama tradition, however, principally in its Indian form,
is still a living force in Indonesia. The Indonesian concept of chivalry is
closely modelled on this epic and on Rama’s ideals. In the education of
Indonesian girls frequent references are made to the lofty examples of
Sita. The main river of central Java, Sarayu, is named after the Indian
river on the bank of which was situated Rama’s capital, Ayodhya.

The other Indian epic, the Mahabharata, is even more popular.
First translated into Old Javanese in the tenth or eleventh century, it
has been repeatedly translated and adapted. The Mahabharata is like
an encyclopaedia of Hinduism containing a wide variety of tales of
heroic deeds and exploits. It appears to have captured the imagination
of Indonesian peoples, who consider themselves to be the descendants
of the heroes of the Mahabharata, and believe that all the drama took
place on their soil. They endeavour to model their own lives and deeds
in accordance with the ideals and examples of its heroes. The major hero
of the epic, Arjuna, is the national hero of Indonesia. The name of the
leader of the Indonesian Revolution, Sukarno, is taken from Su-Karna,
a hero of the Mahabharata.

The style of early Javanese literature closely follows Sanskrit. Courtly
poetry began in Indonesia with adaptations of Indian epics and other
works, The Old Javanese work, Amaramala, is modelled on the Sanskrit
Amarakosa and other Indian lexicons. Such adaptations as 2 category
are known as Parva. Parvas were followed by Kakawins, which were
the adaptations of Indian poetical works. These are called Nitisastra-
Kawin in Java, and in Bali just Nitisastra. The first important literary
work of Indonesia, Arjuna Vivaha, was written during the reign of
Airlangga (Erlanga, or Rake Halu Sri Lokesvara Charmavamsa

rlanganantavikramottungodeva, the only Balinese prince to rule over
both Bali and Java), and deals with an episode from the Mahabharata. The
theme and style of this work made the Indian epic extremely popular in

ndonesia and are reflected in other literary works and folk tales. During

581

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the Kadiri period two poetical works of outstanding quality Krishnayang
describing Krishna’s fight with Jarasandha, and Sumanasantaka, Bae
on Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa, were written. Another masterpiece, the
Bharatayuddha, portrays the conflict between the Pandavas and the
Kauravas. It was written in the second half of the twelfth century by
Mpu Sedah and possibly completed by Mpu Panuluh. Many other
Javanese works, such as Harivamsa, Bhamokavya, Smaradahana, and
Nagora Kritagama, drew freely from Indian literature. The Hitopadesa
and the Pancatantra, which so deeply influenced the fables and fairy tales
of the Western world, were well known in Indonesia and other parts of
East Asia. Their stories form the basis of Indonesian fables and folklore
known as Tantri.

The Indian tradition of puppet shows, Kathaputali, is not only well
preserved, but nowhere in the world are these shows as much an integral
part of the social life of the people as they are in Indonesia. All over
Java and Bali, and now also elsewhere in Indonesia and Malaya, wayang
shows are frequently performed before large audiences. It is an exquisite
art developed over centuries. The beautifully cut leather puppets are
operated by the da/ang (performer) with incredible ingenuity and skill.
‘The performance is accompanied by the Javanese gamelan (orchestra),
and the puppets represent the heroes and heroines of the Indian epics,
with the size, appearance, colour, and ornaments of each character fixed
by convention. The influence of the wayang on the life of the people
is enormous, and even the dominance of Islam has not lessened its
popularity. For the Javanese, says Wagner, “the wayang-kulit is not just 4
show; but represents an abstract world in which ideas take human shape
and imagination becomes reality.” * Stamford Raffles, at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, found eager multitudes of people listening for
whole nights with rapturous delight and profound attention to wayang:
kulit. The nationalists adopted wayang for patriotic shows during their
struggle for power, and without it they might not have succeeded in
gaining mass support for their movement.

The origin of wayang is a subject of dispute, but there is no doub
the culture introduced from India greatly influenced it. Indian myths,
tales, and sagas were increasingly adopted; Indian gods, heroes, >
demons also soon found their way into wayang. As might be expe”

t that

582

t

SUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

Indian tales and heroes over a period of centuries were hopelessly
interwoven. Indian characters and situations drawn from a variety of long
forgotten tales may be woven into a new context with a local character.
Indian traditions also mingled with indigenous myths and tales. Indian
influence, however, is noticed not only in the subject matter of the /akons
(stage version of stories) but also in the technique of the whole art.

Indian imprints on Javanese music, village organization, rural
economy, and customary laws of property can also be seen. Hindu
influence in Indonesian music was perhaps felt somewhat later than it was
in Indochinese music. The reliefs on the Hindu and Buddhist shrines of
the Sailendra period illustrate the musical instruments of that time. These,
especially the ones depicted at Borobudur in the eighth century, contain
most of the local and Indian instruments that make up the modern
orchestra, which is composed almost entirely of percussion instruments.
There is no doubt that the instruments found in the household of the
ruling and upper classes in Indonesia mainly bore Hindu characteristics;
later, in the tenth century, small ensembles such as drum, conch horn,
and crooked trumpet came into use.

Of the two principal scale systems of Indonesian music, pelog and
slendro (salendro), the former is indigenous but the latter is of Indian
origin and was named after the Sailendras. The deity Batara Endrais said
to have invented this system at the command of Siva, but it seems that it
was really given currency by Buddhists in Sumatra. It is a five note scale
with three different modes, which divides the octave into more nearly
equal parts than the pelog, namely into intervals of about six-fifths of a
tone. It is said that Indonesia treats slendro as masculine, exalted, and
Severe, and pelog as feminine, friendly, and sad. The most important
influence in developing Indonesian music was the Sanskrit dance-drama
Which promoted the development of the wayang-kulit, providing scope
for dancing and narrative song.

In Indonesia singing and poetry go together, 2
Metres are found in Javanese songs. The art of dancing matured in the
kratons of central Java, and bears recognizable marks of Indian style.

€ symbolic gesture of the hand, mudra, and the meditative seated
Posture, with legs crossed under the body, for example, are obviously
Indian. Te is, however, in Bali that Indonesian dancing has found its

and many ancient Indian

583

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

highest expression, associated with religious worship and the traditional
Hindu-Balinese ceremonials. Whilst Javanese music absorbed certain
new traits under the impact of Islam, Bali retained its older traditions.
In fact, it was the Balinese who fled from the advance of Islam, settled in
Bali, and created the first musical notation of Southeast Asia, based on
the vowels in the names of the five notes of the scale—ding, dong, deng,
dung, dang. Islamic influence on Javanese music was not significant, and
its chief legacy is a two stringed spike-fiddle called rehab which reached
Indonesia through Muslim India.

Both Hinduism, mostly Saivism in contrast to Vaisnavism in
Cambodia, and Buddhism flourished in Indonesia and both have
left an indelible mark on the life and culture of her people. At about
the beginning of the eighth century, the Puranic form of Hinduism,
involving the worship of the Hindu Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,
was popular in Java; in Indonesia Siva occupied the supreme position.
Buddhism had very little hold on the people of Java at the beginning of
the fifth century, but soon after, due to the missionary zeal of an Indian
monk, Gunavarman, it gained considerable support. By the time I-tsing
visited Sumatra, the kingdom of Sri Vijaya had become an important
centre of Buddhist learning in southern Asia.

‘The influence of religion and philosophy was naturally to be felt in art
and architecture. The religious structures in Java are commonly called
chandis, a term which originally meant a commemorative building. With
rare exceptions, all the relics of Indo-Javanese art are temples, sanctuaries,
and sacred statues. These are found throughout the islands but chiefly
in Java, where most of the Indonesian population appears to have been
concentrated. In Sumatra also, many remains have been found. Bronze
statues and a large stone image of the Buddha in the Amaravati style nes
been discovered in the district of Palembang. Considering that attention
was not paid to some of these monuments until the twentieth century! :
is not unlikely that most of them may have been lost forever. But “ah
are enough left to reveal the high standard of Indonesian art. we r
it was Indian in conception, it became increasingly local in chi ne
evolving a well-integrated and distinctive regional style. For eae
the plan of the temple was Indian but the motifs were modified an
Indonesians excelled in the creation of decorative elements.

584

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

The numerous temples situated on the Dieng Plateau probably belong
to the eighth century, and are the oldest in Java. At least some of them
were erected during the dynasty that preceded the Sailendras. They are
not large monuments but are fairly compact with sparse ornamentation.
Images of Siva, Ganesa, Durga, Vishnu, and other Hindu deities indicate
South Indian influence. Pallava or Calukya art was the main source of
inspiration of these buildings, but Pala art also might have influenced
the Javanese art of this period.

Chandi Kalasan is perhaps the oldest shrine to which an approximate
date (778) may be given. The inscription commemorating this shrine is
also the first Javanese record of the Sailendra kings. Erected by the first
of the kings, it is dedicated to the Buddhist goddess Tara and appears
to have been designed as a sepulchre for the king’s consort. It is situated
south of the Volcano Merapi in central Java. Above the entrance is found
the kalamakara motif, which was originally a Pallava innovation.

The most important Indonesian monument is the stupa of Borobudur,
which immediately followed Kalasan. The building is so enormous that
it must have taken a decade or so to complete and is in marked contrast
to the much smaller Hindu temples of the Dieng Plateau. In the Kedu
Plain of central Java, Borobudur is a structure of overpowering majesty
and splendour and commands an extensive view of the green rice fields
and the distant towering volcanoes. It is rich and bold in conception,
with grand decorations executed in an extraordinarily refined technique.
Coomaraswamy describes it as a ripe fruit matured in breathless air—the
fullness of its forms is an expression of static wealth that denotes the
outward radiation of power rather than the volume.
Its exact origins are shrouded in mystery. Although there is nothing
in India to compare with it, Havell regards it a descendant of Sanchi
and Bharhut. Zimmer is more specific: “The Sailendra style is completely
{tee of Polynesian elements. It is intrinsically Indian, even though, in the
new, very gifted environment, it was guided by a new inspiration. The
'mpulses of the Gupta style, and such subsequent mainland developments
È are represented in the Pallava and Pala, have become infused in it
ee a Specifically, its basic conceptions a See aes
dia ned, well-controlled execution, point to

y than to the North.”

585

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Unlike any other monument of the period, Borobudur is a whol
a whole

g height and

an octagonal
pinnacle. The result is a truncated, terraced pyramid Supporting q

relatively small central stupa, surrounded by seventy-two much smaller
perforated stupas arranged in three concentric circles. The terraces have
balustrades and there are galleries running around the four lower terraces,
The outer side of the balustrades contains niches with 432 images of
meditating Buddhas. Buddhas also appear on the other terraces. The
most significant feature is the series of 1500 sculptured panels in the four
ascending galleries of the lower terraces. The carvings, with extraordinary
naturalness, depict the lives of the Buddha in his various incarnations,
his travels throughout India, and other stories warning the wicked and
inspiring the virtuous. The sculpture resembles certain Indian styles
although typically Javanese scenes are depicted.

‘The unique beauty of Borobudur is inspired by the spirit of Buddhist
devotion. Every detail is executed with care and refined realism. This
freshness and originality was achieved not only by revolutionary changes
in forms and techniques, but also by a novel application of the classical
Buddhist vocabulary already perfected in its original Indian environment.
All Buddhist monuments are associated with religious symbolism.

Borobudur represents the Mahayana Buddhist cosmic system and is
one of the finest examples of iconological symbolism.

Not far from Borobudur there is an extensive group of Hindu temples,
commonly referred to as the Prambanan group, which commands the
veneration of the population. There are six buildings in two lines of
three; the largest and the most beautiful, Lara Djonggrang, built by King
Daksha of Mataram about 860, is dedicated to Siva, and the two smaller
ones to Vishnu and Brahma. The largest temple derives its name from
a statue of Durga Mahisasuramardini, which it contains. Opposite %°
the chandis of the mounts of the three gods of the Trimurti. Pon ee
bas-reliefs representing the story of Rama are carved on the inner ats
the gallery. These reliefs are, if anything, superior to those of Borobu oe
and certainly more dramatically conceived. The gate arches and entran
abound in ornamentation, with the head of Mahakala, an incarna

mountain top carved into nine stone terraces, each of risin
diminishing size, crowned by a simple stupa surmounted by

tion

586

|

;

sUVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

of Siva, in the centre. Both the architecture and sculpture are inspired
by Indian models.

The largest and most important group of monuments in eastern Java
are the temples of Panataran. Although work on this site appears to
have begun during the Singhasari period, the most important was done
in the time of Majapahit.

Indonesian art is a syncretism of Hindu-Buddhist techniques and
of indigenous traditions. The art of the Sailendra period is probably
the most Indian, but later, Indonesian features became increasingly
prominent. As Indonesian culture grew and gathered momentum, the
Indian element weakened for want of immigrant reinforcements. By
the time of Majapahit the synthesis between the Indian and Indonesian
arts was complete, and from then onward the art of Indonesia was truly
Javanese.

Although information about Borneo is at present scanty, seven
inscriptions found at Maera Kaman in Kutei (East Borneo), inscribed on
stone pillars in the Sanskrit script of the fourth century, point to a direct
relationship between India and Borneo. These inscriptions speak of King
Mulavarman and his ancestors and of a sanctuary called Vaprakesvara,
probably dedicated to Siva or Agastya. A beautiful bronze Buddha
image of Gupta style has also been found in Kutei at Kota Bangum, and
several statues of Hindu-Buddhist deities have been excavated at Mount
Kombeng and in the estuary of the River Rata. Indeed, the earliest Hindu
inscriptions in the whole of the Malay Archipelago have been found in
Borneo, Although the Kutei inscriptions are simple, they reveal a fairly
good knowledge of Sanskrit. There are other sites which have yet to be
Properly excavated. Two other objects, a gold Vishnu statuette and a
gold tortoise, were found at Kutei and were worn by the Sultan of Maera
Kaman in his necklace on state occasions. Images of Siva have been found
' various parts of the island, and other remains include a Ganesa image
ftom Sarawak and a Pallava inscription from near Sangbetrang on ie
east coast. The name Borneo is said to have been derived from Porunei,
and is identified with Purnadvipa mentioned in Kautilya’s Arthasastra,
According to the History of the Sung, Sri Maharaja, the King of Borneo
(Po-ni), sent a diplomatic embassy to China in 1082.

587

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

One of the most delightful spots in the world is the small island of
Bali. In the whole of Indonesia, indeed in all Southeast Asia, it is only
here that Hinduism has survived. The Hindu faith, however, has absorbed
many local customs and traditions.

Little is known of the first Indian contact with Bali, and some scholars
describe Balinese culture as an extension of Indo-Javanese civilization
carried there by those who had escaped from the Islamization of Java,
Others, such as Majumdar, hold the view that Bali had been in direct
contact with India, for her inscriptions are in Old Balinese, which
contains many Sanskrit loan words but is different from Old Javanese.
‘The discovery of little clay tablets or circular seals bearing the confession
of the Buddhist faith or Tantric Buddhist mantras, probably of the eighth
century or before, suggests Indian influence for some time prior to that
date. In addition to Sanskrit inscriptions and Buddhist formulae, images
of Hindu gods and characters from the Hindu epics have been found. All
these data indicate that Bali received Indian culture directly, but evidence
of trade between India and Bali has not been discovered.

Bali has been justly called the island of thousands of temples. Despite
the loss of about 2500 temples in an earthquake, it still contains more
than 4500 large and important temples. The number of the temples and
shrines may well be over 20,000. The most important is Pura Besakih, at
the foot of the mountain Gunung Agung, and associated with the Hindu
Trinity. This temple is said to have been founded by Wira Dalem Kesari
(Warmadeva Keshari), probably in the beginning of the tenth century.
It may have originally been a Buddhist sanctuary as well as the state
temple of the Warmadeva dynasty. Even today the tradition is observed
that only a Buddhist pedanda accompanying the ruler as his court p! jest
may enter Pura Besakih. At important ceremonies, Buddhist and Hindu
priests jointly conduct the rites and bless the devotees. Balinese literatur?
and language, religion, worship and cremation services, and caste and
social organization clearly reflect Indian influence. s

Indonesia thus gives a remarkable example of a harmonious blending
of local and foreign cultures. Few countries in the world have received H
much from outside and yet have retained their own distinct perso” ty
In the beginning Indian elements dominated, but they were all gf adually

588

suVARNABHUMI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

acculturized. As an example, the Indonesian week comprised five
ie called pantjawarna of pasaran. Indians, upon their arrival in 78,

ayy

introduced the Saka calendar based on calculations made of the course
‘of the sun, with a seven day week and a 365 day year. Its usage became
common and at first all inscriptions were dated according to this system.
But with the passage of time events were also recorded according to the
Indonesian week of five days. Still later, the two systems were fused in

anew one.’
The Philippines

Indian cultural waves went well beyond Bali and Borneo, reaching
the Philippines and even Formosa. Both of these were for a time
parts of the Sri Vijaya Empire, which has been described by a modern
Filipino historian as “basically Malay in might, Hinduistic in culture,
and Buddhistic in religion.” This contact of Indian culture with the
Philippines also continued under the Sailendras. In the fourteenth
century, the Hinduized Majapahit Empire emerged as a powerful state
in Southeast Asia, extending its overlordship as far as Formosa and
New Guinea. Whilst the control of Sri V ijaya and Majapahit over the
Philippines was rather loose, their cultural impact was deep.

The influence of India over the Philippines was not as direct as that of
China and later of Spain and the United States but, with the exception
of modern European cultures, Indian influences have been the most
und The manner in which Indian influence was brought and the
ae it began are subjects of speculation; dates have been suggested

Sing from the first millennium s.c. to the early fourth century. ;
= eee were near the sea route between India aS HA bee
x eae oe been visited by Indian sailors and me eae
at Novaticke: anons By Me ees open ae systematic
ttchacolopic oe the Philippines. His work Mee ' ae a eee
Were thorou ee ae ee! fae i ‘ded that all the
artifacts a = y examined by R. B. Dixon Beyer con m BERA

Capons such, cae dee tee es Ai beads of
Cmi-precious = knives and axes, glass beads and bangl fora
Ones such as carnelian, agate and amethyst, were broug

589

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

to the Philippines from India over a long period of trade, well before the
beginnings of the Christian era. Both iron and glass objects are similar to,
and in some cases identical with, those of prehistoric South India, “There
is no tribe in the Philippines,” wrote the American anthropologist, Alfred
L. Kroeber, “no matter how primitive and remote, in whose culture today
elements of Indian origin cannot be traced.”** Whatever its antiquity, it
would be hard to deny the existence of trade between the two countries
from the first centuries A.D. onwards. Pre-Spanish Philippine society
with its nobility, code of laws, and political procedure, was largely of
Indian cast. Some years ago when a new legislative building was put up
in Manila, the capital, four figures were carved on its facade illustrating
the sources of the Philippine culture, one of which is Manu, the ancient
Indian lawgiver.”?

A fleeting glimpse of Buddhism is noticeable in Philippine Bathala
worship. The term Bathala, the supreme god of the ancient Tagalogs,
originated from the Sanskrit Bhattara. The Hindu element in the ancient
Philippine religious beliefs, and in the names of old Philippine gods, and
of legendary heroes is quite apparent. Several religious objects which
have been unearthed in the island of Mactan and in eastern Mindanao
show the undoubted influence of India, but only two images of Hindu
deities have so far been discovered. One image of solid gold shows
“clear evidence in its tall pointed head-dress and other ornaments of the
influence of Hindu-Javanese art of the tenth century.”

Spaniards of the sixteenth century found several related alphabets
(one for each of the principal languages), all of which seemed to have
derived from India some eight hundred years before. Malayan language
including those of the Philippines, are unusually simple in their
phonetic system, which caused them to discard much of the elaborate
Sanskrit alphabet, but the salient characteristics of Indian writing wer
retained.

Whilst the most advanced Philippine peoples, such as the Tagalog and
Bisaya, have long given up their old alphabets, remote descendants p
ancient Indian scripts still linger on amongst the less advanced tribes 1"
the interior of the country. Tavera and Paterno, two Filipino scholars, an
Saleeby, an American, and others have concluded that about twenty-five

590

sUVARNABHU MI: ASIANIZATION OF INDIAN CULTURE

er cent of the Philippine vocabularies is traceable to Indian influence,
For instance: bahagi (part, portion) in Tagalog is bhag in Hindi; bansa
(nation) is dans (family); katha (fiction, story) is hatha; diwata (god or
coddess) is devata; dukha (poor, destitute) is duhkha; guro (teacher) is
guru; mukh (face) is mukka; yaya (nurse) is aya: and so on.

Philippine literature, mythology, and folklore are traceable to India.
The Maranaw epic, Darangan, the longest in carly Philippine literature,
is basically Indian in plot and characterization. The tale of the Ifugao
Balituk is reminiscent of the story of Arjunna getting water from a rock
with his arrow for Bhishma who was dying of his wounds. A Philippine
legend about the creation of different races from baked clay pots is quite
popular in India with its local variations.

Indian influence through Sumatra brought the calendar, much of
Buddhist folklore, and the syllabic alphabets; through Java came the
more advanced arts of metal work, jewellery, and weaving. Modes of
dress such as the sarong and putong (turban), personal ornamentation,
especially by the people of Sulu and southern Mindanao, and old names
for money, such as salapi, siping, gatang, tanso, pilak, and dakal, are said
to be of Indian origin. The lotus design on the Philippine weapons was
of Indian inspiration.

In 1762 during the Seven Years War in Europe, which was extended
w% the Philippines, eight hundred Indian soldiers formed a part of the
British expeditionary force against Manila. A year and a half later, when
= invading forces evacuated Manila, many of the Indian soldiers refused
in i sts even at the risk of violating military regulations. They ee
7 Ni ; istrict of Morong in the community now known as Cainta, =
eee sae of Anitpolo, and married local girls. Tk pear = A
Rie and useful part of the Philippine society: They av

Da : of being peaceful, law-abiding, and industrious ee ak

aie cou this brief interlude, and some trade between In a

Panish nothing much was heard of India during the 333 ma ae
as eee (1565-1898), largely because of the se Nees
testrictions e and also because of the similar thoug bar ay
en S ‘the British colonial government on Indians. 2
gime (1898-1946), freer intercourse with other coun

591

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

was allowed, in consequence of which many British Indian subjects came
to the Philippines as traders, businessmen, and a few as labourers. The
contact between the two countries since independence in recent years
has increased noticeably.”

Thus the history of Indian cultural penetration of Southeast Asia
covers a period of more than fourteen hundred years up to the end of the
fifteenth century. Hinduism was flourishing in Southeast Asia when it
was in a state of decline in its homeland. Unbacked by political power or
military conquest, the cultural development of Southeast Asia is indeed
a remarkable tribute to the interaction of human ideas.

592

Chapter IV
IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

THE ADVENT OF Islam was the most important event in the history of
India since the coming of the Aryans, and it was the first major impact
of an alien culture on Hindu society. So far, India had assimilated all
immigrant peoples and cultures; on the other hand, Islam had usually
assimilated the culture of the land to which it went. But in India, Islam
neither lost its identity nor conquered the country culturally; both
appropriated something of each other. The Muslims of the Indian
subcontinent, who constitute the largest Muslim population found in any
one country, are culturally distinct from their co-religionists in Arabia,
Indonesia, or elsewhere. Although Islam assumed an Indian character,
its adherents retained their distinctive religious and social organization.

€ political repercussions of this dichotomy have been far-reaching,
"sulting in the partition of India into two independent states.

The India to which Islam came was in a state of decline. Northern
an had lost its old vigour, the reasons for which ba often
n debate : ined. But for occasional spar
of aa conclusive ania activity had given way
*0 Political ad E E llectual stagnation and social
ae “= adventurism. An era of intellectu 5 Seed
a Neration had set in. Pride in past accomplishment super se
eee Progress meant not ga a

ran to h heritage. Instead of investing their c
oard it. :

593

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The spirit of enterprise was dislodged first by arrogance, later b
timidity. Whilst Al Biruni, who accompanied Mahmud of Ghazni,
considered Hindus to be excellent philosophers, accomplished
mathematicians, and remarkable astrologers, he saw clear marks of
stagnation and decay and accused them of cultural arrogance rooted
in past glory. According to him, the Hindus called foreigners mleccha
(impure) and believed that there was no country but theirs, no religion
but theirs, no science but theirs.’ Having repelled the powerful Huns,
who shook the roots of the Roman Empire and ravaged Europe, the
complacent Hindus became consumingly conceited. The flourishing
commercial and cultural intercourse which had thrived in the area from
Rome to Japan, almost all of the known world, began to contract rapidly.
Deprived of this stimulus, culture became static, Hinduism sectarian
and ritualistic, and Buddhism gradually almost nonexistent, except in
eastern India where it flourished until the thirteenth century. Common
people were divided into innumerable castes and lived in narrow circles;
caste discipline became corrupt and oppressive. The Brahmans tightened
their monopoly of learning and took advantage of the common man’s
ignorance and credulity.

To the west of India the Roman world had collapsed and Europe had
sunk into the Dark Ages. The Eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople,
although it survived for some time, was in a state of decline. In contrast,
China had emerged reunited under a powerful dynasty after a prolonged
period of political unrest. In Southeast Asia and ancient America, new
periods of progress began.”

The death of Harsha in 647 proved an irreparable loss. It marked
the end of an era in Indian history. There were to be no more Asoka,
Chandraguptas, or Harshas. For the next several centuries most of
India, especially in the northern and central regions, was divided
amongst independent kingdoms which, led by ambitious kings of
pretenders, waged interminable wars against one another, often for petty
ends. Although some of the rulers succeeded in establishing pow"
kingdoms, they did not survive for long.

Most of the ruling dynasties of the North belonged to clans la ;
known as Rajput. These suddenly emerged into prominence se
the end of the sixth century, and slowly gained political ascendancy *

ter

594

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

northern India which they held for the next five hundred years. They
continued to play a major role throughout the mediaeval and modern
periods, during which they did not dominate but were sought as allies
by the paramount power in the country. After Indian independence in
1947, the numerous Rajput states, like all others, lost their identity and
were merged into the Indian Union.

The origin of the Rajputs is the subject of historical controversy. The
term Rajput is a derivative of the Sanskrit word, Rajaputra. According
to legend, they are the descendants of either the sun, suryavamsi, moon,
chandravamsi, or fire, agnikula. Some historians have suggested they
were the descendants of the Scythians or Sakas who came to India,
settled there, and eventually became unrecognizably mixed with the
local warrior classes.’ Others trace their origins to the Kshatriyas of the
vedic period.

The Rajputs are renowned for their valour, chivalry, sense of honour,
pride, patriotism, and lofty ideals of individual character. Indian
legends and songs are full of praise for them. They were zealous patrons
of Hinduism and it was, in a way, their courage and devotion which
sustained Indian culture and traditions for nearly five centuries during
the years of political unrest. However, their history is a wearisome
chronicle of states continually rising, warring, and falling. They had no
unity; they could not rise above parochialism and clan rivalries. Loyal
to their personal ideals and prides, they perfected individual culture to
the utter exclusion of national unity and social welfare.’ It is, indeed, a
oe Indian history that such brave people, so earnestly Soe

aith and heritage should have been inadvertently responsible for
the failure to check cultural and social decline because of their constant

Ynastic feuds and internecine wars.

oto per eS frequent wars- eee ae at continuity
= baie scavi were relatively undisturbed, ani

ee in South India. eae poe a
Period witn ue howeres foui hidi R the construction
some ofthe geste Ladd e india, Bur each Rajput dynasty was
cen to a © greatest ba dnd age litics and this led to

ain its distinctive character in art as in pO

595

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the growth of several styles of architecture of which there are five main
ones. Most important of the surviving buildings of the period are the
remarkable temples of Khajuraho, built between 954 and 1002.5 They are
famous for their architecture and sculpture; some of their bas-reliefs are
conspicuous for their eroticism. The Muktesvara Temple at Bhuvanesvara,
the most beautiful of all Orissa temples, belongs to the Rajput period,
having been built at the end of the ninth century. Some treasures at
the famous Ellora and Elephanta Caves also belong to this period.
Despite the growing political unrest and internal decay India remained
practically free from foreign aggression from the early sixth century
until the raids of Mahmud of Ghazni in the first quarter of the eleventh
century, except for the brief incursion of Muhammad bin Qasim in Sind
in 711-713. It is somewhat surprising that the Arabs, who had emerged
as great expansionist powers and brought the lands between Spain
and China under Islamic domination during this period, should have
left India alone. Possibly, the prevalent reputation of Indian glory and
strength deterred aggression, but once Mabmud of Ghazni exposed the
myth of Indian might, numerous attacks on India were made in quick
succession by foreign armies. Another reason for the Arab indifference
to the expansion of Islam into India may well have been the approval of
Indian faiths by the Prophet himself, who is reported to have once said:
“I get cool breezes from the side of Hind.” In Sahih Muslim, Abu Horaira
says that the Prophet mentioned certain rivers as belonging to heaven
and one of them was a river of India. Two Indians, Sarmanak and Ratan,
who collected the Prophet’s sayings, 4/ Rataniyab, are reported to have
visited Arabia during his time. Many Islamic traditions support the high
standing of Indian culture with the Arabs: “Ibni Ali Hatim relates on Ali's
authority that the Valley of Hind where Adam descended from Heaven,
and the Valley of Mecca, which had the tradition of Abraham, were the
best valleys in the world.” Certain words occurring in the Quran, such
as tooba, sundas, and ablai, are of Sanskrit origin. A common legend
suggests that after the Deluge some of Noah’s sons settled in India. A
son of Adam, Shes (Seth in the biblical form), was born in India ands
now said to be buried in Ayodhya. The fourth Caliph is reported to have

said: “The land where books were first written and from where wisdo™
and knowledge sprang is India.””

596

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

These and other traditions may be true, wholly, in part, or not at all,
but they certainly indicate the affection and respect of early Muslims
for India. Considering that the Arabs were convinced of their own
superiority and had imposed their culture on the conquered, their high
regard for India is a rare tribute. Even the highly developed civilizations
of Iran and Egypt could not withstand the Arabs.

Muslim penetration into India was not a case of wholesale colonization,
but of successive military attacks, migration of small groups of West and
Central Asian Muslims to India, and large-scale conversion of local
Indians over a long period of time. The first wave of Muslim conquerors
originated with the Arabs, who gave Islam a foothold in India but did
not press on with expansion. In 636-637, the Arab Governor of Bahrein
and Uman, Usman Sakifi, dispatched an expedition to the coast of India,
but India was still too strong to be successfully conquered. In any case,
Caliph Umar was opposed to attacking India, even when he was told
that “Indian rivers are pearls, her mountains rubies, her trees perfumes,”
for he regarded India as a country of complete freedom of thought and
belief where Muslims and others were free to practice their faith.’ Indeed,
he rebuked Usman Sakifi for dispatching a military expedition, and
threatened him with severe, punishment if the experiment were repeated,
About three-quarters of a century later in 711-713 during the Umayyad
Caliphate of Walid, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sind and Multan.
‘This intervention however was occasioned not by any calculated designs
of aggression; it was in the nature of a punitive expedition against the
Pirates of Kutch who rashly interfered with the trade and vessels of the
Hajjaj, the Viceroy of the eastern provinces of the Umayyad Empire.

: Politically, Islam remained confined to Sind and Multan for the next
four hundred years, but a new era of intellectual collaboration between the
Arab world and India began which was to have lasting effects. Although
their conquest of Sind was politically insignificant, the Arabs acquired
knowledge of vedantic philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, medicine,
chemistry, and the art of administration. Elsewhere, the Arabs had tried
t9 impose a composite culture on the local peoples which w based on
their own language and script, and some elements of the indigenous
civilizations, In contrast, the Arab rulers of Sind adopted local practices ©

a much greater extent than even the later and not so accomplished, Turki-

597

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Afghan rulers of northern India. The Arab rulers dressed like Hindu
rajas, and even followed a policy of religious accommodation. Despite
their uncompromising iconoclasm, they did not apply to the Hindus the
stringent provisions of Islamic law regarding idol-worshippers. On the
contrary, they treated the Hindus as “people of the book.”

Whilst the Arabs treated Indian culture with utmost consideration
and hoped to profit from it, the Indians generally remained unresponsive
to Arab culture, thus gaining very little in return. There are, however, a
few examples on record which are suggestive of some Hindu interest in
Islamic thought. In 886, a Hindu king commissioned an Arab linguist
from Mansura, one of the two Muslim states in Sind, to prepare a version
of the Quran in the local language. In the eighth century, Sind produced
a scholar, Abu Maashar Sindi, an authority on the life of the Prophet
and held in high esteem throughout the Caliphate; several other notable
scholars from Sind made their mark in the Islamic world. Jurists from
Sind were particularly noted for their mastery of the Hadith. Abul Ata
and Abu Zila, two Sindi poets who wrote in both Arabic and Sindi,
attained great fame.

The Arabs were as skilful traders as they were conquerors, and their
merchants, under the stimulus of political supremacy, intensified their
commercial activity, including maritime trade with India. With the
traders came the new faith, but it was only a trickle compared with
what was to come later, and it was confined to a few coastal areas. South
India, with which the Arabs had trade relations long before the advent
of Islam, at this time was involved in political upheaval as well as in
religious rethinking. The Cheras were losing power, and new ideas che
emerging in Hinduism. Indicative of the Arab influence in Malabar 1s
the conversion to Islam in the ninth century of the last of the Cherman
Perumal kings who, a few years after his change of faith, went to Arabia
where he died. The memory of the event was kept alive in Malabar until
recently. The Maharaja of Travancore, until the end of princedom in
India, used to declare at the time of his coronation that he would keep

the sword of power until the uncle, who had gone to Mecca, returned:
Whilst the historicity of this conversion is mainly based on legends a” i
its details are subject to doubt, that Islam had gained a firm foothold
in Malabar at the time is not questioned. The Muslims in the area wer

598

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

designated as Mappillas, a title of honour, and various privileges were
granted to them.’ Under the patronage of the Zamorin who actively
encouraged conversion, the influx of Arab merchants increased, the
volume of Indo-Arab trade greatly expanded, and many Arabs settled
permanently in India.

The real history of Islam in India begins with the Turki-Afghan
invasions, although the invaders were mainly adventurers looking
for plunder. Mahmud of Ghazni, ruler of a small Turki kingdom in
Afghanistan, attacked India no less than seventeen times in'the first
quarter of the eleventh century, and carried back immense wealth,
treasures which included the pillars of the Temple of Somnath and
enormous quantities of jewels and gold. He was also responsible for
the destruction of countless Hindu idols and temples. His invasions
ended the rule of the Arabs in Sind in 1005. After Mahmud’s death, his
successors were unable to hold his kingdom together, and it was left to
Muhammad Ghori, ruler of a small mountainous state in Afghanistan,
to found the first Muslim state in India. In 1192 Muhammad Ghori gave
a crushing blow to the Rajput power in northern India and appointed
one of his Turkish slaves, Qutbuddin Aibak, as the Governor of his
Indian territory. After Ghori’s assassination in 1206 near Damiyak,
probably by an Ismailite fanatic, Qutbuddin Aibak assumed sovereign
power and founded the Slave Dynasty, which turned into an oligarchy of
Turks, jealously guarding its doors against men of other races, whether
Muslims or not.

It was only when the Turki-Afghan rulers had established their
Political authority in northern India, that Islam began to make its
Impact on Indian society. It is, perhaps, a pity that Islam did not spread
in India during its early period of Arab supremacy when it was young
and vigorous. When Islam came to India, it had passed the peak of its
Power and glory. Worse still, it arrived through the medium of military
adventurers and free booters whose own cultural attainments were almost
nonexistent, The Turki-Afghans had raided and looted India for more

an two hundred years before they began to organize an administration.
ss the Turks almost devastated the moo ee
wee tament and interminable warfare. Whilst e Ottom a

onstantinople were compelled to respect the dignity and traditions

599

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of Islamic culture, their kinsmen in India felt no such compulsion, The
Ghaznavis, the Ghoris, the Khiljis, and the Tughlugs were much too
concerned with the conquest of the country to devote much attention to
religious or cultural matters. These conquerors were, in general, rough
and crude people, ill-grounded in and uninspired by the Islamic faith, It
was a great misfortune for both India and Islam that Islam fell into the
hands of ruthless Turki-Afghan generals, whose sole aim was to establish
themselves as sovereign powers and use the rich resources of India as
funds for their almost ceaseless military campaigns.

When the Turki-Afghan conquests are compared with the early Arab
invasions of India, the difference between the barbarity of the former and
the culture of the latter stands out clearly. At first the Arab invasion was
marked with cruelty, and Muhammad bin Qasim did commit rash deeds
in his religious zeal or political nervousness in a foreign, reputedly mighty,
country. Moreover, Muhammad bin Qasim was very young. Yet, as soon
as the war ended, he compensated those whose property was wrongfully
damaged, gave offices of responsibility to local representatives, permitted
them to worship their own gods, practice their own customs, build their
own temples, and gave protection to the people under his authority.”
He even kept Hindu ministers and police officials in his service. Indeed,
when he informed his Caliph that he had demolished temples, converted
Hindus to Islam, and successfully waged war against them, he was
reprimanded instead of receiving the commendation he had expected.
His actions were held by the Caliph to be against the Islamic law, and
he was ordered to compensate for the damage he had done.

Contests for political supremacy had been a feature of Islamic history
from the very inception of the Caliphate. Whilst the first four Caliphs
may have had religious motives for their political actions, the wars and
conquests of later Muslim kings were never purely religious. India resisted

the early Islamic invasions, as she would have any intruder, regardless
of nationality or religion. Thus, the early armed conflicts between the
aggressors and the nationals were not religious but simply political wars-
Once Muslims states were founded in India, wars between Muslim
kings were as common and natural as wars between Muslim and Hindu
rulers. Most of the wars which the Muslim Emperors of Delhi had to
fight were against Muslim sovereigns. All the Muslim invaders wh

600

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

came after Muhammad Ghori had to contend with a Muslim state. The
invasions of Timur and Nadir Shah were not against Hindu kings but
against Muslims. The cruelties of Timur were directed against Muslims
and non-Muslims alike. It was Timur who built a human wall by piling
uptwo thousand shaikAs of Islam one upon the other and plastering them
alive. Babur had to defeat a Muslim king, [brahim Lodi, and he was
opposed” by the combined forces of Rajputs and Muslims. Humayun was
dislodged by Shershah, and Akbar had to defeat other Muslim rulers to
consolidate the Empire, and was actively aided by Rajputs. Aurangzeb
spent the last years of his life in a long struggle to subdue the Muslim
states of Deccan with the help of well-known Hindu generals. Even
Mahmud of Ghazni made profuse use of Hindu generals and soldiers
in his campaigns.

A Muslim king was first a king and then a Muslim. Alauddin
Khilji abolished the supremacy of the Ulama and asserted the King’s
independent authority and responsibility for good government. Even
the devout Aurangzeb did not undertake the holy pilgrimage to Mecca,
Haj, for he was afraid of losing his throne in his absence. Neither the
Sultanate of Delhi nor the Mughal Empire was an Islamic state in the
real sense of the term. Although some rulers acknowledged but did not
obey the authority of the Caliph, imposed jizya and many laws of the
Sharia on Hindus, and patronized Muslim saints and nobles, all of them
subordinated the demands of religion to the exigencies of politics. Few
went to Haj, a major requirement of Islam. They extracted far more
revenue from the cultivators than was allowed under the Islamic law,
indulged in the lax and luxurious life forbidden by Islam, and, by claiming
to be the “Shadow of God” on earth and assigning divine rights to
themselves usurped the sovereignty, which, according to Islam, belonged
to none but God and which was exercised under rigidly prescribed
Conditions by the Caliph. Even the Caliphs did not govern according
to the instructions of Islam. No Muslim rule, other than that of the first
four Caliphs, was truly Islamic in character, and in a sense the Islamic
ae and Islamic culture lasted for only about half a century under the

Tophet and the four righteous Caliphs. ee
k: € period of effective Muslim rule in India is generally divided T
Yo parts—the Sultanate of Delhi (1206-1526) and the Mughal perio

601

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

(1526-1707)."' Whilst the latter is a glorious period of Indian history
the former was very turbulent. The Delhi Sultanate did little to synthesize
Hindu and Muslim cultures. With a few notable exceptions, the rulers
were incompetent, cruel, and degenerate. Dynasties were short-lived
court intrigues and palace revolutions were rampant, and learning =
the welfare of the people were completely neglected.

The five dynasties that ruled at Delhi before the rise of the Mughals
were the Slave (1206-1290), the Khilji (1290-1320), the Tughlug
(1320-1412), the Sayyid (1414-1451), and the Lodi (1451-1526).
‘The Slaves jealously guarded their doors against non-Turks, but the
distinctions between Turks and non-Turks vanished during the Khilji
period. The Lodis were the first Afghan tribe to rule at Delhi but Babur
wrested control from them in 1526. The early Turkish rulers of India
had been Afghanized over the period of their stay in Afghanistan. Most
of the later rulers were actually born in India, and many were of part
Indian parentage; the proportion of these steadily increased with the
passage of time.

Most of the Sultans were busied putting down rebellions of their
own subordinates. No less than thirty-five Sultans belonging to the five
dynasties sat on the throne of Delhi during a period of little more than
three centuries, an average of about nine years for each Sultan. Of these
thirty-five, nineteen were assassinated by Muslim rebels. As if this had
not done enough damage to the prestige and power of Islam, Timur
came in 1398 and left behind a trail of violence. He demolished a Muslim
state, converted Delhi into shambles, and laid much of northern India
to waste.”

Yet the Sultanate of Delhi was the richest and most powerful Muslim
state of the time, and attracted innumerable scholars, soldiers, and
statesmen, who had been forced to leave Iraq and Iran after the fall of
the Abbasid Caliphate. Whilst the frequent fluctuations in the political
fortunes of the Sultans of Delhi did not allow them to either harness the
accumulating talent for cultural progress or to impose their supremacy,
usurping the Caliphate, over other Muslim states, the very fact that
Muslim scholars poured into India stimulated Indian contacts with the
outside world.

Whilst North India renewed its close contact with Western Asia and

602

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

the Islamic world, South India continued some relations with Southeast
Asia, and received visitors from the European world. Islam travelled to
Southeast Asia from South India during this period. Marco Polo visited
South India on his homeward journey from the Mongol Court of China
towards the close of the thirteenth century. He commended Indian kings
for good administration, and Indian merchants for their wealth, and
declared that India was “the noblest and richest country in the world.”

Of the visitors who came to India during this period the more
prominent were: the Moroccan Ibn Batuta, who stayed in India for about
twenty years in the middle of the fourteenth century; the Italian Nicolo
de Conti in the early fifteenth century; the Persian Abdur Razzaq, who
was an envoy to the Zamorin of Calicut in 1442-1443; and the Russian
Athanasius Nikitin, who travelled through the Bahmani Kingdom in
South India from 1470 to 1474, and was awed by the luxury of the
nobles and the poverty of the peasants. In 1498, Vasco da Gama landed
at Calicut, thus discovering the direct sea route between India and Europe
which led to a regular influx of European visitors.

Tt was, in fact, after the commencement of European activities in
the coastal areas of India that the Mughal dynasty was founded in
1526. During its rule, Indo-Islamic art and culture made rapid and
memorable strides. All of the great Mughal Emperors were men of
literary accomplishment and refinement and generously patronized art
and learning. Akbar, although himself illiterate, far outstripped all the
others in intellectual capacity, humanity, and cultural patronage. Babur
Wrote his memoirs, as did Jahangir, who was also interested in science
and medicine. Shahjahan was well-read and knew Arabic, Turki, and
Persian fairly well. His eldest son, Dara Shikoh, was a renowned scholar.
Aurangzeb was proficient in several languages and a devoted student

y in exile in Burma after the revolt of 1857, was a sensitive an
accomplished poet.

Islam expansion has been mainly attributed to coercion rather than
a Whilst it is true that considerable official E
Re ae the zeal of the individual, and at times Pr ea ic Gey
Sone = ed, much of the Hindu conversion to ista Aare

indus, especially in Bengal, embraced Islam because ot £

603

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

caste oppression, and others because they had had a genuine change
of belief under the influence of Muslim missionaries. Others became
Muslims in order to gain concrete benefits by embracing the religion
of the rulers. z

The development of Islam in India was a process of evolution rather
than of imposition. Indifferent to culture, the Turki-Afghan rulers, in
fact, sought neither to impose Islamic culture on India nor to enrich it
by drawing upon the rich Indian heritage. But racial exclusiveness could
not be maintained indefinitely. All the soldiers and officials could not be
imported from Western or Central Asia. Even if there were enough men
in these areas who were competent and prepared to undertake government
positions in India, their recruitment would have been impossible on
economic grounds alone. In addition, there were political and sectarian
rivalries demanding the exclusion of alien Muslims. Muslim rule had to
be Indianized to ensure success in India. This became inevitable as the
Hindus who embraced Islam soon far outnumbered the few who had
come from outside. The Muslims in India were like the Buddhists in
China, or the Christians in Europe. The Chinese Buddhists could not
be called foreigners because they embraced a faith of alien origin, or the
European Christians called Asians because Christianity was born in Asia.
That the Muslims of India felt themselves to be Indians is well illustrated
by Abul Fazl in his din-i-Akbari. He was so carried away by the beauties
of Hindustan that he apologized for a digression which proceeded from
“the love of my native country.”

‘The Hindus gradually overcame their natural hostility against what
had come from outside in the company of the sword. Slowly throughout
India, the initial clash was followed by fusion and synthesis. In
language and literature, scientific and philosophic thought, and art and
architecture, a new character began to emerge which reached its peak
during the Mughal period, especially under Akbar. He initiated measures
to blend the two communities in a variety of ways. His Din-i-Ilabi (The
Divine Faith), in which he sought to create a universal religion, was 4
noble effort. Dara Shikoh translated the Upanishads into Persian, and
if he, instead of his younger brother and executioner, Aurangzeb, had
come to the throne, the history of India might have been different. Both
Akbar and Dara, in attempting to unite the two cultural groups, were

604

}
i
|
|

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

following the main teaching of Islam, which is unity, human equality,
and universal toleration. Islam rejuvenated Indian life, but it did not
rive rise tO substantially new and enduring doctrines in Hindu culture.
A possible explanation may be that Indian thought was highly intricate,
whilst Islamic thought was simple and straightforward with a powerful
appe

Islam was uncompromisingly monotheistic. The Quran lays great
stress on the unity of God and on the belief that nothing can share a
single attribute with God. This doctrine led to the mass destruction of

al for the common man but a less strong one for the intellectual.

Hindu temples and images, countless works of arts and learning, and
created extreme bitterness in Hindu minds: but it also compelled Hindus
to reflect on their own beliefs, many of which had become unrecognizable
through tradition, superstition, and dogma. Consequently, Hindus began
to modify their existing practice, mainly by returning to the original
purity of their own scriptures. For instance, the vedantic philosophy of
monism, the principal teaching of the Upanishads, was revived under
the vigorous guidance of Sankaracharya (Sankara). Opinion is divided
as to whether the new emphasis on the upanishadic thought was the
consequence of the Islamic impact or a natural stage in the development
of Hindu thought.

Whilst Islam preached the unity of God alone, accepting the universe
as his creation, Sankara’s vedantic philosophy stressed the unity of
both the creator and the creation: the latter being maya, an illusion.
“Brahman—the absolute existence, knowledge, and bliss—is real.
The universe is not real. Brahman and Atman are one.” Sankara is the
unrivalled propounder of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualistic aspect of the
vedic teachings. His clarity, wisdom, and spirituality are deeply impressed
upon the Vedanta—which is not only the primary Indian philosophy
butis also widely popular abroad. However, the historical possibility that
Sankara revived the upanishadic teaching because of Islamic thought
Cannot be altogether ruled out, for he was born about 686 in a village in
Malabar, where Arab traders had introduced Islamic ideas.”* 4

Islam opposed the caste system, and taught human a
ron peg, Tae Sul mime eH SAS ra

S amongst the lower caste Hindus for whom conversion t0 S
as later conversion to Christianity, meant escape from a life of indignity

605

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and suffering. Islam’s attack on caste and idolatory led to religious
ferment which culminated in the Bhakti cult, single-minded, direct
devotion to God and liberalism in religion." There emerged a succession
of remarkable teachers, such as Ramanuja, Madhava, Ramananda, Kabir,
Vallabhacharya, Guru Nanak, Chaitanya, Dadu, and Mirabai, who
advocated reconciliation of the two religious beliefs. Between them they
covered a period of more than five hundred years, from the eleventh to
the seventeenth centuries. Ramanuja and Madhava were amongst the
early saint-reformers, and of the later ones, the most important were
Kabir and Guru Nanak.

Ramanuja, of the eleventh century, ranks second only to Sankara
amongst the great interpreters of vedantic thought. He argued that
God and souls of men were not the same, although not separate from
each other, and that the highest ideal was to love and worship God and
to surrender completely to Him. Ramanuja’s philosophy is known as
Visistadvaita (qualified non-dualism), for he admitted the plurality of
of both matter and souls.

Whilst Ramanuja was strict in culinary rules, his eminent follower,
Ramananda, who probably lived during the end of the fourteenth and the
first half of the fifteenth century, was not. Ramananda admitted disciples
of all castes to his group, and they learned and dined together. His
disciples included Dhanna the cultivator, Pipa the raj, Ravidas the leather
worker, Sainu the barber, and Kabir the Muslim weaver. Chaitanya
(1485-1533) of Bengal, in whose teaching is found the culmination and
fulfilment of the religion of love, and who ushered in a new era in the
spiritual life of Bengal, also had both Hindu and Muslim disciples. The
cult of Krishna was particularly popular with Muslims.

Kabir (ca. 1440-1518), whose teaching is a synthesis of the finest
Hindu and Muslim sentiment, condemned rituals and caste, opposed
asceticism, and preached the religion of love. He combined the zeal ak
a reformer with the humility of a devotee. He regarded the spiritual basis
of Hinduism and Islam as one, and was revolted by the superstructures
of dogma. Kabir was the embodiment of the process of Hindu-Muslim
union in mediaeval India. He advocated a universal religion, to which
no Hindu or Muslim could take objection. He denounced the Hindu
worship of idols, ceremonial rituals and caste on the one hand, and on

606

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

the other, the Muslim trust in one Prophet and his book, pilgrimage, and
fasts. He repeatedly pointed out that Hindus and Muslims were one: they
worshipped the same God and were children of the same ancestors.

Make thy mind thy Kaaba,
Thy body its enclosing temple,
Conscience its prime teacher.
Then, O priest, call men to pray to that mosque
Which hath five gates.
The Hindus and Mussulmans have the same Lord.

Kabir had a large following amongst both Hindus and Muslims.
Amongst his friends were several reformers who are remembered with
respect even to this day, such as Taqui of the Sufi Suhrawardi sect,
whose daughter Kamal married a Brahman, and Ravidas, who was a
low caste, chamar, Hindu. Kabir is regarded as one of the great men of
Indian history. He is an outstanding Hindi poet whose poetry is steeped
in the love of God. Today there are more than half a million followers
of Kabir, Kabirpanthis, in India. Other offshoots of his teaching are the
Satnamis, Radhaswamis, and Dadupanthis.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539), a contemporary of Kabir and the Mughal
ruler Babur, founded the Sikh faith.” Principally a social and religious
thinker, Nanak lived in a period of Indian history filled with political
upheavals, atrocities, and lawlessness. He condemned formalism and
ritualism in religion and tried to blend the mystical ideas of the Hindu
and Muslim faiths in Sikhism.'* His first puplic proclamation was that
there was no Hindu or Muslim, for all were the children of the same
God. The ultimate goal of human beings was to enjoy divine beatitude.
In many r espects, he represents the high water mark of this Hindu-
Muslim cultural synthesis and renaissance philosophy. He op postal
forms of idolatry and denounced caste and communalism. He preached
devotion to one God, transcending religious divisions. His teachings
Were so liberal that they constitute a daily prayer not only for Sikhs, but
also for many Hindus.

: All the reformers condemned caste, denoun
ae advocated a puritanical way of life, preac

Mony, goodwill and unity, exposed the futility of cere

607

ced polytheism and
hed communal
monies, tended

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

to emancipate the minds of men from the domination of priests and
mullas, safeguarded fundamental religious beliefs, and encouraged local
literature. They were nonsectarian, noncommunal, and nondogmatic,
They realized the oneness of the God invoked by various religions
under different names and believed in the ġhażżzi as the principal means

of salvation. Their chief contribution to Indian religious thought was

a profoundly psychological analysis and comprehensive interpretation
of bhakti.

Whether the Bhakti movement was inspired by Islam or was a logical
extension of the developing Hindu thought during the mediaeval period
is debatable. Certainly the excessive, if not exclusive, stress on devotion
and love of God as preached by the leaders of the Bhakti movement
was in contrast to the ancient Indian philosophical speculations which
emphasized intellectual scepticism as the essence of religion. However,
before the advent of Islam, Hindu mediaeval thought had departed from
the questioning attitude, demanding logical explanations of conclusions,
and had come to seek its validity in revealed truth. The earliest mention
of bhakti is found in the Svetasvatara Upanishad. Later the Bhagavad
Gita, composed before the Christian era began, emphasized the triple
path of bhakti, jnana, and karma to obtain moksha, and by the middle
ages bhakti had become a central doctrine of Hinduism.

The sacred language of Islam was Arabic, the mother tongue of the
early invaders; later conquerors spoke Turkish and Persian, influenced
and modified by Arabic. Whilst Arabic remained the language of
religion, Persian became the language of the court during the Muslim
rule. Persian was, therefore, studied by both Hindus and Muslims if they
sought administrative positions, but it did not become the language of
the masses, not even of the Muslim masses.” The overwhelming majority
of the Muslims in India were Indian converts, and the change of religion
was easier than the change of tongue. Of necessity, Arabic and Persian
had to intermingle with local languages. The result was Urdu, which is
spoken in northern India and is a national language of Pakistan today:
A combination of Persian and Hindi, Urdu is a fine example of Indo-
Islamic synthesis. The evolution of a common language was indicative

of growing intimacy between the two religious groups and an assurance
of future understanding.

608

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

Originally a spoken language, Urdu came to be written in Arabic
script. Its basic structure and grammar are Indian, as is most of its
vocabulary. The emergence of a simplified and popular language helped
the development of local languages too. A flood of literature appeared in
the different languages of India. The Bhakti saints wrote and preached in
ocal languages, which gradually gained importance and respectability,
the snobbery attached to Sanskrit, which had discouraged the

the |

and
development of literatures in regional languages, was overthrown.

More important, however, was the growth of a common outlook
which discounted religious ritualism and led to an extensive exchange of
ideas at the common man’s level and, consequently, to the development
of common cultural patterns. As Urdu and Hindi were the expressions
of the new common culture, Hindu and Muslim scholars wrote in
both languages. Whilst Amir Khusrau, Rahim Khanikhana, and Malik
Muhammad Jayasi wrote classical poetry in Hindi, many Hindus
contributed to Urdu literature. Muslims contributed to the development
of regional literatures also; for instance, Alaol (Alaul-Husan), the son
of the Nawab of Jalapur, heralded a new age in Bengali literature. He
translated not only Jayasi’s famous Hindi epic, Padmavat, into Bengali,
but also the Persian romance, Saifu’/-Muluk wa Badi’ul-Jamal.

Hindu and Muslim rulers in practically every region encouraged Indo-
Islamic culture and literature. Muslim kings endowed Hindu temples and
granted crown lands to learned Brahmans. During the reign of Qutbuddin
Ahmad Shah (1451-1458), the first lyrical poem, Vasanta Vilasa, was
composed in Gujarati. The Bengali translation of the Mahabharata was
undertaken under the order of Nasir Shah of Gaur who ruled from 1285
to 1325, and to whom Vidyapati dedicated one of his poems. Similarly,
Hussain Shah commanded Maladhar Vasu to render the Bhagavad Gita
into Bengali. In South India, the Qutbshahi and Adilshahi rulers, some
of whom were poets in their own right, patronized the local languages
‘ven more than the Muslim kings of northern India.

we creative energy released by Indo-Islamic cultural intercourse
achieved even better results in art. In many ways, Islamic art, which had
Se a synthetic character from a selective fusion of Arab, Syrian,
yzantine, Persian, and Central Asian traditions, was the antithesis of

indu art. The divergence in natural background, religious beliefs, and

609

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

political history of the two peoples was reflected in their respective art

forms. Yet upon contact, instead of clashing they blended together, giving
rise to a new form of art in India.

Because of religious taboos, Muslims were not initially interested in
music and painting, but they soon acquired a deep affection for them.
Before the rise of Islam, Mecca was not only noted for its shrines,
but also for its dancing and singing girls. There is some evidence that
even in the Quran a beautiful voice is indirectly praised. The Persians
had always been fond of music. The oldest parts of the Avesta, named
gathas, were recited in a musical voice. The Sassanian kings were famous
for their patronage of music. With this background, Islam could not
resist music for long. The serious study of this art began during the last
phase of the Umayyad Caliphate and was well developed by the time
the Abbasids ascended to their rule. The growth of Islamic music was a
valuable contribution to world culture, as well as to that of India. Islamic
music first came to Sind with the Arabs, and was soon blended with the
prevalent Indian system.

The divine service in the mosque was performed without vocal or
instrumental music, but when Muslim rulers saw that Hindu life was full
of music, they adopted it into their social life, although they continued
their namaz (prayer) without music. Muslim Sufi saints, who were
as fond of music as the Hindu Bhaktas, even introduced it into their
congregational meetings, where songs of divine love, gawwalis, were
sung; qawwalis are extremely popular in India even today.

Some Muslim rulers became skilful musicians. A Muslim ruler of
Jaunpur is credited with developing the imaginative raga khayal from
the massive and solid raga dhrupad. Alauddin Khilji had a number of
accomplished musicians amongst his courtiers. Singers and dancers—
Hindu, Turkish, Persian, and others—resided permanently at Muslim
darbars, often under the headship of a Persian officer. Devotional songs,
such as bAairavi, Sarasrag, kalungra, and bhairon, were sung at religious
gatherings, and in the darbar, malkos and darbari were presented. Thus, by
a fusion of Indo-Iranian music, North Indian music was formed.” The
Muslim poet, Amir Khusrau, was also a famous singer who introduced
new styles. From the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries onwards Persian
modes were introduced into the music of northern India, thereby making

610

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

ita little different from that of South India where the Iranian influence
was not felt. The modern ragas and raginis developed under Muslim
patronage- Many Indian instruments also owe their origin to Muslim
artists; for instance, the zabla, dilruba, sarod, and naggqara, were introduced
by the Arabs or Iranians. Amongst the tunes believed to be Iranian in
origin are zangola, žlif, zala, and khamaj.

A synthesis of Hindu and Muslim musical elements had taken place
even during the period of the Delhi Sultanate, and by the time of the
Mughals, a musical art form existed which became highly developed
under the enthusiasm and patronage of the Mughals. Music, as other
aspects of Indo-Islamic culture, reached its zenith at the time of Akbar.
During his reign about two hundred tunes were modified under Iranian
influence. Darbari, or chamber music, was introduced in his time. The
celebrated pupil of Swami Haridas, Tansen, lived at Akbar’s court, and
was one of his navaratna (nine jewels). Tansen’s disciples gave rise to
various schools of music. It is said that when the Mughals returned to
the north after their conquest of Deccan, they took with them the most
famous South Indian musicians along with other artists and sculptors.

Music in Muslim India was far more popular than it is sometimes
made out to be. A major reason for this may well be that the vast majority
of Muslims in India were of Hindu descent and disinclined to give
up, like their tongue, their music. Even today some of the best known
Indian musicians are Muslims, such as Ali Akbar Khan, Vilayat Khan,
and Bismillah Khan.

The mediaeval period, in fact, appears to have been an age of
accomplished musicians, both Hindu and Muslim. The great poet-
Gees Surdas, and Mirabai, belong to this ee iat

ry, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur, was also a composer,

à teacher of both Hindu and Muslim musicians, and the author of a

book, Nau-Ras, on music. In Kashmir, King Zainul Abidin patronized

oe ioe music and had a large number of Central Asian musicians T
a Shahjahan, the prince of builders, who did not re me

me a great lover of music. ae T

S as other art forms, Os court aoe TERA n
iee An music—often called Hindustani—had airea

Personality.

611

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Today, Hindustani and Karnatak schools of music are prevalent in
the north and south respectively. There may be minor differences of
nomenclature and articulation but basically there is only one Indian

music. The raga is the basis, and its development the goal of musical

expression. Both systems have the same number of notes—seven suddhq
and five vikrita—in the octave. The classification of ragas under p

modes is also common to both.

arental

Because of Islam’s intense aversion to images, sculpture was not a
well-developed art in the Islamic countries. Pre-Islamic Arabia had idols,
and a few animal figures in stone, bronze or other metals are found in the
palace of Alhambra in Spain and amongst the ruins of Egypt and Spain.
Pre-Islamic Iran, under the Achaemenians and Sassanians, was rich in
sculpture. Sculpture was also highly developed in India and remained
almost unaffected by Islam.

At first Islam did not encourage painting, but later the Caliphs declared
that the religious injunction against the representation of living creatures
applied only to religious structures, not to residential buildings. Hence,
the Umayyads and the Abbasids in Asia and the Caliphs of Spain had
their palace walls decorated with floral designs and even human figures.
The Mughal rulers loved and patronized painting. Babur brought with
him some of the finest specimens from the ancestral collection of Timurid
paintings. The Timurid school of painting, one of the two greatest
Persian schools—the other being the Safavi—was begun by Timur’s
grandsons. The first patron of the school was Iskandar Sultan, son of
Ulugh Beg, who ruled over Fars until 1414. Soon afterwards another
Timurid ruler, Baysunghur (d. 1433), attracted artists to his library at
Herat; it was there that Kamaluddin Bihzad flourished in the middle
of the fifteenth century. Bihzad was the greatest artist of Persia—with
the possible exception of Mani—and his interpretation of the Timurid
style of painting greatly influenced Indian art. Both Babur and Humayun
greatly admired Bihzad, and when Humayun returned to India after ne
exile in Persia, he took with him two of Bihzad’s distinguished pupils,
Mir Saiyid Ali and Khwaja Adbus Samad Shirazi.

In the course of time, three new schools of painting—the Rajput,
the Jammu, and the Kangra—emerged in northern India, appeati"8
first in the early sixteenth century in Rajasthan. Later, the Rajput style

612

a

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

epread far beyond Rajasthan to the Himalaya states, Kashmir, and also to
Mathura and Banaras. The new style was primitive but highly expressive
and colourful. The eyes of the figures were almost hypnotic, with all
expression conveyed through postures and poses of the body. However,
Mughal art superseded this style by the middle of the seventeenth
century.

Akbar was a great admirer of the realistic and forceful simplicity of
the Hindu style and of the delicacy, linear grace, and decoration of the
Persian. He deliberately initiated a blending of the two styles under
experts of both schools. Akbar rewarded good paintings generously,
and both Hindu and Muslim artists were designated as officers of the
state. His patronage, coupled with the use of paper as a medium, greatly
advanced the development of the graphic arts. The importance of painting
is stressed in the Ain-i-Aabari. Talented Iranian and Indian artists
executed the miniatures of the illuminated manuscripts of Hamzanama,
Tutinama, Baburnama, Razmnama, a Persian version of the Mahabharata
which cost the Emperor about eighty thousand pounds, the Akbarnama,
illustrated by Farrukh Beg, Nala-Damayanti of Faizi, the Ramayana, the
Harivamsa, and others. The Akbarnama paintings are noted for their
unity of design, even though Mughal miniatures were usually painted
by several artists. The miniatures of the Indian epics are not only fine art
specimens, but also a valuable source of information about contemporary
Hindu manners and customs.

At first the style was chiefly Persian in inspiration but later it was
more influenced by Indian styles, and by the time of Jahangir's reign a
new Mughal style of painting had been born. Jahangir, a talented painter
himself, patronized painting almost exclusively; all the great painters of
the school belonged to his court. He had a keen aesthetic sense and loved
the beauties of nature. He was so attracted to Kashmir that he visited
it thirteen times during the twenty-two years of his reign. He favoured
ae in art, and the painting of eee ao
bide 3 zenith during his reign. Mansur is a e ae e
Rajput ne painters of the period. From J es eta carried
sane e Mughal schools can be distinguished. Oe a

ition, but his chief patronage was given to ar

‘on, Dara Shikoh, patronized the arts, although he was more interested

613

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in philosophy. He left behind a valuable album of paintings, but before
he could stamp his personality on Indian culture and Society, he was
executed by his younger brother, Aurangzeb. i

Islam’s richest contribution was in architecture and the whole of
northern India is studded with beautiful buildings of the period. The
Fatehpur Sikri complex, the Red Fort of Delhi, and the Taj Mahal are
a few of the many outstanding buildings in which the blending of Indian
and Islamic elements can be seen.

Muslim architecture, a fusion of Arab, Syrian, Persian, Turkish,
Central Asian, and other traditions, is generally massive, with extensive
buildings and mosques, mausoleums, domes, minarets, lofty portals,
open courtyards, geometrical patterns, and calligraphic inscriptions. Its
basic forms are the pillared hall, the dome resting on pillars, and the
brick vault and cupola. The monotheistic puritanism of Islam delighted
in the simplicity of the unbroken dome, the plain symbolism of the
pointed arch, and the slenderness of the minaret. The inhospitable
natural surroundings of Arabia had influenced the art of Islam, as they
did its outlook on life, making it austere, vigorous, and purposeful. It
is particularly conspicuous in mosques and sacred places by the absence
of representations of living beings, whether in painting or sculpture. In
contrast, Hindu architecture is renowned for its majesty, richness, and
variety. Temples were carved with reliefs of all forms of the supernatural,
and animal and plant life. Hindu art is decorative and at times voluptuous,
whereas Muslim art is simple and puritanical.

By the time the Muslims came to India with a view to setting up an
empire, they already had centuries of cultural tradition behind them
which was influenced by the numerous peoples with whom they had come
in contact in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Although Islamic architecture
started in Arabia, it attained maturity through a period of sustained
development-in West and Central Asia, North Africa, and Spain,
before reaching its zenith in India. Islamic architecture originated in the
construction and design of the mosque and many of its finest buildings 4°
mosques. Next in importance come tombs, followed by palaces, forts, a
public buildings. In their early days in India, the Muslims were dazzled
by the extraordinary richness and sumptuousness of Indian architecture.
In the fourteenth century, they began to react against it, but this was *

614

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

short-lived phase; soon syncretic tendencies reached their peak during
the Mughal period.

The oldest extant Indian mosques are in the neighbourhood of Delhi
where the Mughals built profusely. The most significant early Islamic
building in India is the Qutb Minar at Delhi, which was completed
about 1231 during the reign of Iltutmish. One of the most stupendous
architectural achievements conceived by Muslims, the tower, comprising
fve stories and standing 238 feet high, forms part of the Qutb Mosque
scheme. The Qutb Mosque was built by Qutbuddin Aibek in 1195 on the
spacious substructure of a Hindu temple, and consisted entirely of spoils
extracted from temples in the area. Such a second-hand building had little
architectural beauty or order. However, four years later it was decided to
project an expansive arched screen across the side of the structure facing
Mecca; this screen is possibly the first surviving example of a structure
in definite original Islamic style on Indian soil.

At about the time the Qutb Minar was being built in the eastern
extremity of the Islamic world, Yusuf I of Spain, at the western extremity
of Islam, was raising a tower even higher than the Qutb, the Giralda, at
Seville. However, neither the Giralda nor any other tower in the Islamic
world surpasses the Qutb in beauty. Another extremely fine example of
the early Indo-Islamic style is to be seen in the adjacent Alai Darwaza,
built in 1310. This and the ruined tomb of Alauddin Khilji, erected
soon after, represent the early Sultanate style at the time of its greatest
perfection.

i Many palaces, mosques, mausoleums, baths, and educational
institutions sprang up, especially during the reigns of Alauddin Khilji
and Firuz Tughluq. After Alauddin’s death there was a change in style,
Which had been foreshadowed for some time, and Tughluq architecture
became marked by the absence of extravagant features. The Tughluq

“yle, however, is vigorous and straightforward and readily adapted
Its departure from Islamic

o
Mt structural features to its requirements.
arble gave place to rubble

traditions became clear; red sandstone and m

and plaster.

x The Lodi style was an elaboration of the Tughluq,
eee motifs from Iran and Turkistan. The most impo

of the tomb of Sikandar Lodi is the double dome, which subsequently

enriched by new
rtant feature

615

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

played an important role in the evolution of Mughal style. This
architectural invention, designed to preserve the symmetry and relative
proportions of the body of the building, probably originated in Syria and
came to India through Iraq and Iran.

The assimilation of forms and techniques in art naturally went on
throughout the country. In Bengal, the prevalent brick construction was
adopted by the Muslim conquerors who imitated Hindu motifs in their
structural embellishments. The main features of Islamic architecture in
eastern India are heavy stone pillars, pointed arches, and brick vaults, In
Kashmir, the beautiful wooden architecture was readily appropriated, and
Kashmiri tombs are quite different from similar structures elsewhere in
India. In western India, Gujarati styles were similarly adapted. The rich
ornamentation and delicate style of the Muslim architecture of Gujarat
accord with the highly developed and rich Hindu architecture. In other
regions of India, similarly, Islamic architecture absorbed prevalent local
characteristics, emerging with a distinctive personality.

Unlike other Muslim rulers of India, the Bahmani rulers of the
Deccan largely ignored the indigenous art with the result that the Deccan
style was mainly influenced by the Imperial buildings at Delhi and the
monuments of Iran. The Bahmani Kings, who were Shia Muslims, were
patrons of the arts and sciences. They attracted eminent scholars and
expert technicians from other countries, and it was probably because of
this that their military architecture was much influenced by Europe and
their civil architecture by Iran.

The Muslims acquired much from the Sassanian and Byzantine
schools, and in all the countries they conquered they adapted the
indigenous architecture to their own requirements. In India, mosques and
temples required some ornamental decoration, and colonnades adorned
the open courts of both but the contrasting styles were striking. ‘The
prayer chamber of the mosque was spacious, whereas the shrine of the
temple was small; the mosque was light and open and the temple rather
dark and closed in; Muslim construction was based on arches, vaults and
domes, whereas Hindu construction was based on columns, architraves
and pyramidal towers or slender spires. The Muslims readily adopted
the Hindu trabeate, the system of using beams or long square stones 3°
lintels and entablature instead of using the arch. They also made us¢ of

616

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

the bracket type of Hindu corbel—the stone or timber projection for
support. In return, they gave to Indian architecture a sense of breadth
and spaciousness and introduced new forms and colours. Like the
Romans, they used concrete and mortar imaginatively. They spanned
big spaces with arches, roofed large areas with magnificent domes,
and introduced, amongst other architectural features, the minar. They
introduced decorative arabesque or geometric devices, inscriptions in
graceful lettering, gilding and painting in variegated colours, encaustic
tile-mosaic and tesselate designs in coloured stones and marble.

With the establishment of the Mughal Empire in 1526, a new era of
architecture dawned in India. By that time, even those Muslims whose
families had come from outside had been largely Indianized, and the
Indo-Islamic cultural synthesis had attained maturity. The Mughals
gave it a new and vigorous impetus. In 1530, Babur, the founder of the
Mughal Empire, was succeeded by his son, Humayun, who, after ten
years of unsettled reign, was exiled for the next fifteen years. Because
of the almost unending warfare throughout their brief reigns in India,
Babur and Humayun were unable to contribute much of lasting value
to Mughal architecture.

During Humayun’s exile, his conqueror, Shershah Suri, famous for his
revenue administration and public welfare works, ruled from Delhi, and
architecture made considerable progress during the relatively brief rule of
the Suri dynasty. At first Suri architecture was soberly elegant but toward
the end it became highly decorative. It is the precursor of the Mughal
styles, and an important stage in the development of Indian architecture.
Shershah’s finest building is the mosque constructed at Delhi in 1541.
The mausoleum of Shershah, in Sahasram in Bihar, built in a splendid
Indo-Iranian style at about the same time, is an architectural masterpiece.
lt is indeed a suitable tribute to the genius of a ruler and to the skill and
Vision of its architect. Constructed of fine sandstone, the mausoleum is
a feet wide and stands four square in the centre ofa large artificial a

extensive that each of its concrete sides measures 1400 feet in lengti :

hilst the style of Babur and Humayun was foreign, that of the Sum,
though Muslim in external appearance, was influenced in details by
indu architecture especially in the construction of doorways.

617

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

‘The first outstanding monument of the early Mughal style is the
mausoleum of Humayun (Humayun ka Makbara), built by his widow
during Akbar’s reign. She is said to have employed an Iranian architect
Mirak Mirza Ghiyas, who introduced certain Iranian features such asa
typically Iranian dome, an arched alcove as is found in the royal tombs
of Iran, the interior arrangement of corridors, and the complex of rooms.
Indigenous characteristics are to be found in the elegant kiosks with
cupolas, and the excellent stone masonry. ‘The style of this monument
has been described as an Indian interpretation of an Iranian architectural
conception. Both in spirit and in structure, Humayun’s tomb is a
captivating example of the synthesis of two great traditions of art.

All of the early Mughal buildings display the sober elegance of the
Iranian style. At the beginning of the Mughal period, a fresh wave of
Iranians came to India: this influx of noblemen and men of learning
and culture more or less continued throughout the period. Iran thus
played the same part in the development of Indo-Islamic art during the
sixteenth century as Renaissance Italy did to the art of France. But early
in Akbar’s reign, Iranian influences were blended with Indian styles.
‘This fusion is reflected in the mosque and palace buildings at Fatehpur
Sikri, the capital city built by Akbar in 1570-1574 on a site near Agra.
‘These buildings form a brilliant complex, with broad terraces and stately
courtyard surrounded by numerous palaces and pavilions. The most
imposing building is the Jama Masjid; its finest feature is the 176 feet
tall southern gateway, the Buland Darwaza, which is made of marble
and sandstone, and is architecturally the most perfect gateway in India,
and the largest of its kind in the world. Indeed, the buildings at Fatehpur
Sikri constitute one of the most spectacular structural achievements in the
whole of India. The style of Fatehpur Sikri is mature in every respect, fully
absorbing Iranian elegance into the exactness of Indian workmanship.
monument to Akbar’s vision and originality, it is, after the Taj Mahal,
the most notable architectural achievement of the Mughals. This capital
was built purely as a retreat from military strife. But Sikri’s tenure 45 the
capital was ironically short, lasting hardly more than a generation.

Akbar left scores of buildings at Agra, Allahabad, and elsewhere.
The Agra fort, built in 1565-1573, is one of his outstanding structural
achievements. It is important not only in providing an example of the

618

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

military architecture of the early Mughals, but in testifying that the
netic taste and artistic feeling of its builders influenced even utilitarian
structures. Unlike most Muslim rulers of India, Akbar encouraged
genous construction systems and borrowed from other countries

aestl

indi
only when necessary. Most of his buildings are red sandstone, with white

marble here and there for emphasis, and both arcuate and trabeate styles
were used.

In the secular buildings of the time, of which the most important and
complete is the palace of Akbar’s Hindu queen, Jodh Bai, the carved
decoration was unrestrained. Figures of elephants, lions, and peacocks,
and other embellishments suggest that Hindu craftsmen predominated,
under the supervision of accommodating Mughal overseers. Some of the
civil buildings are more Hindu than others, and copy features of Hindu
and Jain temples. Although this synthesis was a natural outcome of
Indo-Islamic cultural exchange, Akbar’s sympathies with Indian culture
as a whole partly accounts for these unorthodox intrusions into Islamic
art. In mosques and religious buildings, however, traditional Muslim
construction was adhered to more closely.

By the time of Jahangir and Shahjahan, both of whom were sons
of Hindu queens, the situation had changed. Islam had long been
Indianized and so had Mughal rule. Muslim art had already assumed
a predominantly Indian personality, in which Iranian influence can be
detected only by experts. Although Jahangir inherited Akbar's artistic
taste and built some magnificent structures, his reign was relatively
unproductive in architecture. However, other arts developed, and a new
school of miniature painting was established. Of the buildings erected
by Jahangir, the tomb of Akbar, at Sikandra near Agra, is the most
impressive, Built in 1613-1614, it was a departure from the conventional
domed structure, and is a low, truncated, three-storied pyramid shape.
Reflecting something of the nature-loving monarch whose remains it
are ex nen it Ahe cannes and pe a ie like hee

i = ENS. Its four minarets are in perfect harmony; nothing es
acco built in northern India since the Qutb Minar centuries earlier
X ae does not compare with the mausoleum of Haoa aes
Conception of such magnitude that it was not compiete

619

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

eight years after Jahangir’s accession, even though the Emperor io
personal interest in its construction.
: : JA; a) Ve EA 5
Another interesting building of Jahangir’s reign is the tomb of his
father-in-law, Itmadud-daulah, at Agra, built by Empress N

urjahan,
This small, elegant, and exquisitely finished mausoleum aa A
transition between the styles of Akbar and Shahjahan, illustrating a
fresh interpretation of the art of building. As an example of architecture
in miniature, this building, with its garden and gateways, is one of the
best of its kind. Built of white marble and decorated in stone of five
colours, it is elaborately ornamental and embellished throughout with
subtlety and delicacy. This mausoleum marks the beginning of the most
sumptuous phase of Mughal building characterized by the profusion of
gold, precious stones, and white marble, which replaced sandstone. The
best known buildings of Shahjahan’s period are the Jama Masjid; the Red
Fort at Delhi, with its Diwan-i-Am, Diwan-i-Khas, and Moti Masjid;
and the Taj Mahal. The Taj is the triumph of Indo-Islamic synthesis in
art. Shahjahan built the mausoleum which stands on the Jamuna River at
Agra, to enshrine the remains of his qeen, Mumtaz Mahal. Commencing
work in 1631, twenty thousand Hindus and Muslims laboured for
twenty-two years to finish it. Whilst the broad conception of this unique
memorial is attributed to Shahjahan himself, there is some uncertainty
about the identity of the architect who translated his ideals into stone.
Some Western scholars have suggested that he was a Venetian jeweller
and silversmith, Geronimo Veroneo. There is no evidence to support this
suggestion except that the Italian was employed by the Mughal Court at
the time and was invited, along with many others, to submit designs to
a council of architects and craftsmen convened by the Emperor. But the
design finally accepted was prepared by local master builders. That the Taj
Mahal is wholly indigenous is obvious by the indisputably Indo-Islamic
style of architecture. Contemporary manuscripts give full details of its
construction, including the names of the architects and builders, amongst
whom are found Hindus, Muslims, and West Asians, but no Italians.

Shahjahan’s reign was followed by the long, austere, and autocratic
rule of the intensely orthodox Muslim emperor, Aurangzeb, the last
of the Great Mughals. Aurangzeb was not a patron of art, but was an
accomplished calligrapher, and had made copies of the Quran to cai

620

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

his living. After his death, the unity of India was broken and the country
was plunged into political chaos and intrigue.

Just as the buildings constructed by Muslims blended Islamic designs
with Indian details, the Hindu temples came under Indo-Islamic
influence. The Govind Deo temple built in 1590 is the most notable of
these and is a tribute to the versatility of Indian masons. It shows a sense
of refinement and an appreciation of plain surfaces not often seen in
temple designs. The secular architecture of Hindus, for example in Malwa
and Rajasthan, was also influenced by Akbar and his successors. Royal
residences and other state buildings, for instance at Bikaner, and palace
fortresses, such as those at Jodhpur and Orchha, show the influence of
the Mughal style.

Other arts and crafts which the Muslims transmitted from Iran
to India, are enamelling, faience, the parcel gilt work of Kashmir,
damascening, and papier maché. Innovations were introduced in the
manufacture of cotton and silk textiles, woollen shawls and carpets, and
Nurjahan is credited with the discovery of the attar of roses.

Islamic political influence was considerable. In fact, the whole military
organization was revolutionized and a new military oligarchy became
the principal political institution of Muslim India. New weapons and
techniques of warfare were also introduced.

The Muslims introduced into India the Yunani system of medicine.
The large number of physicians, Aakims, at the royal court held high
mansabs and rendered inexpensive medical aid to the sick. The Yunani
‘ystem is presumably so called because the Arabs had borrowed liberally
from Greek medicine.
ae made a greater impact on Indian urban life than og rural life.

ed by the royal court, the urban population attained a high degree

of Sophistication in language and literature, arts and crafts, manners,
aes and refinements. The centres of pri o E
a a set fashions that were widely Plonk E E
ea a ing even unfriendly states such - 3 EAE
a ae a Mingis) impress persisted in the pr An ER
Upper classe = ening eee an es: a i ia Akbar and
€twards = i dian VASI: klamis eee rg. ongst the

exercised considerable influence on men's wear am gs

621

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Hi Pé i asse s nN
Hindu upper and middle classes, but not so much on women’s clothing
except in jewelry.”

Whilst the court played a significant part in determining styles,
dress is principally governed by climatic conditions. Conseque
in large countries, the national dress has regional style. For inst
pajamas are worn in the Punjab by both Hindus and Muslims, as js
the dhoti in the south; the variations in dress more often reflect class

ntly,
)
ance,

rather than communal distinctions. Women’s ornaments are common
to both communities. Whilst the sha/war is worn by the women of the
Punjab, the sari is the most common dress of all Indian women. In India
today certain regional dresses, like dishes of food, have gained national
popularity. For instance, young girls in all parts of India prefer the shalwar
to the sari because of its suitability for active work and sport, and the
Afghan-type karakuli cap is a common sight in Delhi during winter.

Even those Muslims who came to India from other countries largely
adopted costumes suitable to their new country. For instance, the Arab
amama, jubba, rida, tahmad, and tasma, as well as the Central Asian kulah,
nima, and moza, were replaced by the Indian pugree, chira, kurta, angarkha,

patka, dupatta, and pajama. The assimilation in dress was primarily an
upper class problem, and the large numbers of Hindu converts felt no
need to change their fashions.

In the rural Indian villages, where practically the entire Muslim
population was descended from Hindu converts, the traditional Hindu
outlook and social forms were retained. Even the caste prejudices, the
objection to widow remarriage, and the love of ritual and image worship
continued. Both Hindus and Muslims observed similar ceremonies of
birth, death, and marriage, and had much the same fairs and festivals.
The dress, the manner of cooking, the family system, and the style of
houses continued to be the same for both, and the common language
remained the regional tongue.

In social life, however, some effects of Islam on Indian society we
not too, healthy, for example, the development of purdah, the seclusion
of women. Many Hindu nobles were required to offer their daughters 1
marriage to Muslim sultans and noblemen, a demand which the former
found contrary to their religious beliefs. The caste-ridden Hindu coul
not contract marriages for their children outside their own caste OF ORE

Spt! 622

[IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

subcaste, let alone their religious group. Consequently, they responded
to this pressure by adopting the Muslim practice of purdah, which, in
time, led to child-marriage and the general deterioration of the woman's
position in Indian society. Customs such as jawhar and sati became more
frequent. However, in the areas where Muslim influence was weak, such
as South India, the custom of purdah was not prevalent.

For all its emphasis on human equality, Islam, like Buddhism before
it, failed to demolish caste. From the Hindu point of view the Muslims
became another caste, and despite cultural similarity, they remained
a distinct social group. Because of the rigid Hindu caste system,
intermarriage and inter-dining between orthodox Hindus and Muslims
were not possible. Also, no orthodox Muslim would allow his son or
daughter to marry an unconverted Hindu. There was, however, no
hostility based on group prejudice or religious consciousness. Cultural
dissimilarities were regional, and power conflicts political.

A common Inpian culture could not be evolved unless Islam in turn was
influenced by Hindu culture and became Indian in character. Because
of the Indian influence on their social life and customs, Indian Muslims
today are a group distinct from Muslims elsewhere. Hindu caste affected
Islam. Commonly, Muslims are regarded as belonging to two social
groups—the sharifzats (high castes) and the ajlafzats (low castes). In fact,
however, there are many more social castes and distinctions which divide
Indian Muslims.» Whilst inter-caste marriages amongst Muslims were
hot prohibited, they generally did not take place. Social distinctions were
preserved not by religious belief but by snobbery. The Muslim bhangi
Was as downtrodden as his Hindu counterpart, although the Islamic
ideal of human equality was a major incentive for many caste-ridden and
*PPressed Hindus to embrace Islam. But in practice their social inequality
Paed The foreign Muslims regarded themselves as somewhat
tl ae j 7 the local converts and, as a natural extension of tis Bo?
with in Mesias like the early Eurasians, se Ps ideas a =
the ee ae eign class. Having been eng pors n i
Shaikh, in X they developed a class of their own. Bet ae
Next in į Plying Arab origin, carry highest prestige; ae
importance. Outcastes and the converts from the lower

623

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

castes were designated as Nau (New)-Muslims, somewhat in the same
way as new migrants are called New Australians in Australia today,
Islam condemns priesthood, but it developed amongst Indi
Muslims. They also showed a marked fondness for ritual and elaborate
ceremony. Islam is monotheistic and iconoclastic, but Indian Muslims

an

often venerate saints and their tombs. Numerous sacred shrines, such as
Shaikh Chishti at Ajmer and Bhairava Nath at Mathura, are frequented
by both Muslims and Hindus. A Muslim sect, Panchpiriyas (worshippers
of five pirs), venerate saints to such a degree that an Indian census of 1911
described them as Hindus whose religion has a strong Mohammedan
flavour. The Prophet rejected miracles, but Indian Muslims sanctify
their heroes. Many Muslims even developed idolatrous practices. For
example, the Chauriharas of Uttar Pradesh worship Kalka Sahja Mai
and observe sraddha ; the Meos of the Punjab worship many gods such as
Siausi, Magti, and Lachi : the Mirasis take offerings to Durga-Bhavani;
the Turk-Nawas of eastern Bengal worship Lakshmi. Many Bengali
Muslims worship Sitala, Kali, Dharmaraj, Baidyanatu, and other Hindu
deities. The Avans of the Punjab use Brahmans as family priests, and the
cow is revered by the Shins of the Indus Valley, who do not eat beef,
as well as by the Momins of Kutch.” The Momins worship the Hindu
Trinity—Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh—and their salutation is “Ram
Ram.” Muslim ascetics are often tonsured and smear their bodies with
ash; they also often act as guardians of shrines. The fire in some Muslim
areas such as the Jhang district in West Punjab and Gorakhpur in Uttar
Pradesh is looked upon as sacred. Many Muslims participate fully in
Hindu festivities, such as Holi and Diwali.

Hindu women in Muslim harems formed a powerful influence
working out the Indo-Islamic synthesis. Hindu women who married
Muslim men introduced their social customs and rites into the new
homes. Muslims tended more toward monogamy under Hindu influence,
the remarriage of widows became rarer. Many features of Muslim oe
life were borrowed from Hindus. The Hindu superstition of the a
eye, and Hindu habits of bathing and ceremonial purity were adopte
by Muslims. Many Rajput converts retained their family names: -
‘Malkana na Rajputs, now Muslim, still perform Hindu rites and ceremonies.

re r tobe called Miyan Thakurs and admit to being a mixture °

624

e in

|
|
|
|l

|
|

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

Hindu and Muslim. The Avans, although they are nearly all Muslims,
retain their Hindu names and keep their genealogies in the Brahmanic
fashion. Hindu titles, such as Chaudhari, Thakur, and Raja, are also
found amongst Muslims. Some Muslim groups use the Hindu marriage
ceremony, OF perform the Hindu rites first and the Muslim ceremony
afterwards. The Hindu joint family system and, in many cases, the Hindu
property law were followed by Muslims.

Islamic thought was also aftected by Hindu doctrines and philosophy.
There were, no doubt, a number of people amongst both communities
who bitterly resisted extraneous influences or innovations, but there
were many more who regarded the spirit of religion as more important
than its letter. Amongst them were mystics who interpreted religion
for the common.man. It was because of the endeavours of such people
that the closeness of the two apparently irreconcilable doctrines came
to be noticed: both stressed inner discipline, purification of mind, and
unification with the divine.

The most mystical Muslim philosophy is Tasawwuf, known as Sufism,
which is essentially the doctrine of the love of God, and which has
exercised an incalculable influence on the intellectual and emotional life
of Muslims, as well as on Islamic culture. Although Muslim orthodoxy
often persecuted the Sufis, it was their interpretation which won the
most converts to Islam in India, Africa, Indonesia, and elsewhere. It
has been suggested that it is only because of Sufism that Islam became
an international religion.

Sufism is not regarded by its followers as something which originated
at 5 specific place or at a certain pointin time: Jalaluddin Rumi said in his
Diwan that the Sufis drank the wine of wisdom and knowledge before
there were vines on this earth. Another Sufi scholar asserts that Sufism
'S too sublime to have had an origin. One theory derives Sufism from the
“tw Mana a ne ao
R : another maintains it originated independen : x EEA
a in all religious men. It has also oe PR ion imposed

vee the reaction of the Aryan mind to a semite gi

= © term Suf comes from suf meaning wool; a Sufi is one wh A
4 e
Collen garment. The movement represented a reaction against

who wears

625

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

worldiness, luxury, and external piety of the period which followed
the Muslim conquests. ‘The early Sufis were simple, unsophisticated
and pious people, who lived a life of self-discipline and poverty (fakr),
devoting themselves to meditation and prayer in the quest of truth and
righteousness. Their meditation was originally the continuous chanting of
the name of Allah. Ascetics at first, they soon easily became mystics.
It was a woman, Rabia al-Adawiyya (717-801), who introduced a
new dimension, the doctrines of divine love, into early Sufism by her
concentration on serving God without being motivated either by the
fear of divine punishment or expectation of reward: “O God if I worship
Thee in fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship Thee in hope
of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise; but if I worship Thee for Thine
own sake, withhold not Thine Everlasting Beauty.” She thus marks the
transition from the ascetic quietism of early Sufism to the advanced form
it assumed with the introduction of the doctrine of marifat, gnosis, by
the Egyptian Dhul-Nun al-Misri (d. 861), and that of fana, passing away
into universal being, by the Persian Abu Yazid of Bistam (d. 875). Yazid
was bold in his language and scandalized the orthodoxy. He was the first
of the “intoxicated” Sufis who had drunk the “wine of knowledge” and
who found God within his own soul through the mystic path. He was the
first Sufi to give a detailed description of his miraj, mystical experience.
From his time onward, the doctrine of fana became a central theme in
Sufi theory. It was, however, Al Junaid of Baghdad (d. 910), the most
original and penetrating intellectual of his time, who was responsible
for developing this doctrine as an integral part of a well co-ordinated
theosophy. Mansur al-Hajjaj (858-922) carried the philosophy still
further. He did not merely see in the supreme mystical experience a
reunion with God, but taught that man was God Incarnate, the doctrine
of anal-hagg (1 am the Truth). geet =
By the end of the twelfth century Sufism so dominated the Muslim
mind that every school of Islamic thought had become influenced by =
Imam al-Ghazali (1058-1111), who has been described as a “Renewer ©
Islam,” was mainly responsible for this. His philosophy was the p" odu
of varied experience. After prolonged study, he attempted to sani
orthodox Islamic teachings with mysticism and applied rational methoc 3
_ in interpreting its dogmas and doctrines. He became a wandering Sufi in

626

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

1095, asserted the futility of scholasticism, and declared that philosophy
cannot unfold the mysteries of God and creation. He emphasized the
value of direct experience as the vital element in religion, and taught
that man’s duty was to seek God and to love Him, whilst the role of
the intellect was to realize its own limitations in this task. Ghazali took
Abu Yazid, Al Hajjaj and Abu Said ibn Abil Khayr, who had reached
the “reality of realities,” as his models, and used their phrases, such as
“anal-haqq,” to express his belief in monism and “the annihilation of the
soul and the sole vision of God.” The greatest Muslim mystic thinker,
Muhi al-Din ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) was influenced by Al Ghazali. He
built an imposing philosophical system and through his prolific writings
Muslim mysticism attained its zenith. He was a complete monist: not
only is there no other god but God, there is nothing but God and the
world is His external manifestation. The evolutionary cycle of Sufism
was completed in the fourteenth century with the rise of the school of
Wahdat-al-Wujud, existentialist monism.

‘The early Sufis adhered to what was prescribed by Islam, but their
ideal of life was renunciation, self-abnegation, and poverty. Later,
Sufism gained greater spiritual intensity and breadth of outlook. Whilst
retaining its mystical content, the Sufi vision embraces both heaven and
earth and seeks to penetrate the innermost secrets of creation in order
to comprehend the Divine mysteries that lie beyond ordinary human
perception. The Sufis came to believe in the attainment of the vision of
God and union with the Divine by adhering to the mystic path, żariga
or suluk. For them, spiritual life is a journey (safar) along this path; the
Journey has many stages and each state (magam) has its corresponding
achievement of certain virtues (Aa/). For Sufis, God or reality is the
Universal will, the true knowledge, the eternal light, and the supreme
a teflected in the mirror of the universe. As the nature of beauty
os and desire to be loved, Sufis oe ae a ee
world is all religions and the cause of creation an T co eee ee
Wahdat- on perc yee ug Ten me ae all apparent

i oe ujud, anity once ee bane = ee reality, and that
he eee are modes, aspects, and manifestation o a > Th

i menal world is the outward expression of the real, an qq)

now Thyself” is the core of Sufi philosophy, as it is in the Vedanta. It

627

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

is through the path of self-knowledge that truth or reality is discovered
in both Sufism and Hinduism, whether it is called Jnana in $
Man arafa Nafiah Rabbahu in Arabic.

Mysticism of the Sufi type has no place in orthodox Islamic teaching,
for the strictly monotheistic religions, with the exception of Christianity,
are not conducive to mysticism. Neither the Torah nor the Quran lend
themselves to a mystical interpretation, as both assert most emphatically
the complete otherness of God. Yet, the fact that mystic thought did
develop in Islam is an illustration both of the powerful mystical strain in
all religion, and of Indian influence on it. It is, therefore, not surprising
that numerous scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have been struck
by the remarkable parallels between Sufi doctrines and those of Indian
Vedanta and Buddhism.

One of the earliest examples of India’s possible influence on Islam
appears to have been the rise of opposition to legal Islam, known as
Zuhd or asceticism. But in the further advanced philosophic concepts
of Sufism, more definite Indian influence is suggested. R. A. Nicholson,
strongly supported by Max Horton, insists that the Sufi idea of fana
is of Indian origin, and strikingly close to the nirvana of Buddhism.
Although recently A. J. Arberry has disputed this assertion as not proven,
the weight of argument and opinion would seem to favour Nicholson
and Horton rather than Arberry. The founder of this doctrine, Abu
Yazid of Bistam, an uneducated man who disliked books, was a pupil of
Abu Ali al-Sindi, who came from Sind in India (and not from a village
called Sind in Khorasan, as Arberry asserts) and who was a convert to
Islam from a foreign religion, evidently Hinduism. He instructed Abu
Yazid, as Yazid himself admits, in the doctrines of divine unity (tawhid)
and the ultimate truth (Aaga-ig) Even Abu Yazid’s phraseology *®
reminiscent of Hindu philosophical expression. For instance, his usage
of “That” for God is a typically Hindu way of referring to proni
as the absolute, Taz. The phrase Takunu anta dhaka is indeed a liter

translation of the upanishadic phrase, fat vam asi, meaning “Thou at
“That” which is exclusive to the Vedanta. Considering that the vedantic
teacher, Sankaracharya, had just revived and systematized the ee
philosophy and made it a widespread and vigorous movement in ee
i se ems likely that Abu Yazid knew of it through his Indian teacher. AbU

<

anskrit, or

628

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

Yazid’s extreme monism and his description of the world as illusion or
deceit is remarkably close to Sankara’s dismissal of the phenomenal world
as maya, and his interpretation of vedantic monism.” A contemporary
scholar, Zachner, in fact, regards Sufism as “Vedanta in Muslim dress.”
It is indeed a remarkable illustration of cultural migration that through
Sufism Indian monism should have found its way into Islamic philosophy
which has been uncompromisingly opposed to any monistic or pantheistic
doctrines.

Goldziher, who counsels that Sufism can be looked upon as an
organized sect within Islam, points out that even the Sufi doctrine of
Tawhid, or unity of God, is fundamentally different from the usual
Islamic monotheistic concept, and is dependent upon Indian philosophy.
“A Sufi goes so far to say it is shirk (giving associates to God) to assert
that ‘I know God’: for in this sentence duality between perceiving subject
and object to knowledge is involved; and this is also the current Indian
view.”27

The doctrine of anal-haqq is too reminiscent of the vedantic aham
Brabmasmi to be attributed to parallel growth, especially since it is
completely alien to Islamic thought. Its founder, Mansur al-Hajjaj,
incurred the wrath of Islamic orthodoxy by his monist doctrine. He
was condemned for blasphemy and was crucified in 922 for heresy. His
theories were later incorporated into the system of Ibn-al-Arabi and
Abdul Karim Jili. Jili’s familiarity with Hinduism is testified to by his
reference to ten major sects, including the Brahima (Brahman). Another
exponent of Sufism, Jalaluddin Rumi (d. 1273), was also persecuted at
first for opinions which were later accepted by the orthodoxy. Through his
Most important work Mathnavi containing reflections on Sufi thought,
ate the practice of sama, a devotional dance akin to ie Hae

» to Sufism. He taught that the heart is the mirror of divinity an
eae “self is a copy made in the image of God,” man’s own eee
ana, ee Dema self, which is God, to win p E oe ele
hae: e annihilation of the self. All these doctrines closely re

of Hinduism.
oy of the mystical practices of the Sufis n oe ee
Suf De oe. have been derived from yogic breat g ce

is similar to the Hindu japa, and the tasbih (rosary,

629

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

replica of the Hindu ma/a. Both Indian thought and Sufism stress the
approach to God not only through love but also submission to the pir
edge

or guru, who guides the way over the torturous path of self-knowl
to enlightenment.

It is probable that Sufism, although independent in origin, was
assisted in its growth by contact with Indian thought. India and Tran,
where Sufism developed, had long been exchanging scholars, merchants,
artists, and envoys. Sufism first emerged as an eclectic philosophy in that
part of Iran which is now Soviet Central Asia and Afghanistan, where
Buddhist monks had been preaching for centuries, and which, until the
rise of Islam, was a flourishing centre of Hinduism and Buddhism. The
conversion of Ibrahim bin Adham (d. 777), prince of Balkh, to austerity
became a favourite legend amongst the later Sufis. Admonished for his
frivolity by an invisible voice during a hunting expedition, he is said
to have pledged himself to an austere life. This story has often been
compared with the story of the Buddha, and Al Junaid has called Adham
the “Key to Sufism.”

It is also clear that Sufism was more congenial to Iranians and Central
Asians than to the Arabs. Buddhist monasteries flourished in eastern
Iran and Transoxiana with a powerful centre at Balkh long before the
Muslim conquest of India in the eleventh century. Wandering Indian
monks were found as far as Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate, and
are graphically described by Jabiz (ca. 866). A good deal of Buddhist
literature had passed into Islam, often through a Manichaean medium:
By the eighth century, some Buddhist texts had been translated into
Arabic along with many other Indian works. The Arabic version of the
Balauhar wa Budasaf (Barlaam and Josaphat) had become a part of Arabic
literature. The Buddhist story of the blind men describing an elephant
according to their sense of touch recurs in the writings of Tawhidi, Al
Ghazali, Sana-i, and Jalaluddin Rumi. The moral of the story is that
as each blind man felt only a part of the elephant and accepted it as the
whole animal, so various religions know only partial truth, but in their
spiritual blindness, claim it to be the entire truth. This denunciation ©
religious bigotry was an essential aspect of both Buddhist and Hindu
teaching, and suited the Sufis admirably.

x k ; ated
i - During the Arab period, many major Indian works were translate

630

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

into Persian and Arabic. Al Kindi wrote a book on Indian religions;
Sulaiman and Al Masudi collected and recorded information about
India; during their travels, Al Nadim, Al Ashari, Al Biruni, and others
discussed Indian religions and philosophic systems at length in their
writings. Indian life and thought influenced the Islamic world in three
areas: popular literature, science, and religious thought.

Indian mystic ideas were possibly transmitted to Jewish mysticism,
known as Kabbala, through Sufism. Kabbala developed in Egypt and
Western Asia and was introduced into Europe about 900. Important
modifications in the doctrine were made centuries later by Isaac Luria
(1534-1572) who lived in Palestine. Many features of Kabbala, such
as the marvellous powers assigned to letters, the use of charms and
amulets, the emanations or phases of the deity, and the theory of the
correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm, are amazingly
like Indian Tantrism. Hindu influence is definitely discerned in the
theories of metempsychosis and pantheism, so often found to have
some connection with India when they exist in an extreme form.
Although alien to the spirit of orthodox Judaism, the pre-existence and
repeated embodiment of the soul is taught in the Zohar, and even more
systematically by Luria whose school composed works called Gilgulim,
or lists of transmigrations. The ultimate Godhead is called En soph or
the infinite and is unknowable, not to be described by positive epithets
and therefore, in a sense nonexistent, since nothing which is predicated
of existing beings can be truly predicated of En soph. These are crumbs
from the table of Plotinus and the Upanishads.”

Many Sufis were attracted to India and settled there; eventually India
became a centre of Sufism. Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922) was one of the
earliest Sufis to visit India. Tradition also mentions a few other Sufis who
settled in South India. However, Ali bin Uthman al-Julabi al-Hujwirt
(a. 1072) was the first Sufi known to have made India his home, and in
a aaile of the cleven ca e
ee as called Kashf-al Makjub, which has remaine ee

is revered by people of various faiths as a great teachet

the honorific title of Data Ganj Bakhsh.
Salar Masud Ghazi and Shaikh Ismail came to India in the eleventh

ce :
ntury and made many converts to Sufism before Islam became a

631

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

political force. Muinuddin Chishti came to India from Central Asia about
1192 and founded the Chishti order of Sufis, the largest Sufi order in
India and Pakistan even today. His tomb at Ajmer is a popular Pilgrimage
place for both Muslims and Hindus. Later, Sufis came in large numbers
with Muslim conquerors and began to preach Islam. They established
monasteries, presided over by a pir, murshed or shaikh, who guided the
disciples along the path of self-realization, zariga. Their zeal, tolerance,
and sympathy with Hindu thought brought success, but soon many of
them gave up missionary work and devoted their attention to the study
of Indian religions and thought.

Sufism in India aided the rapprochement between Hindu and Muslim
beliefs and culture, for example in the Bhakti movement. Sufi thought
to a limited extent inspired such eminent Indian thinkers as Kabir,
Guru Nanak, Ram Mohan Roy, and Rabindranath Tagore. Sufis were
influenced by Indian thought, particularly in the seventeenth century
when they were repelled by Aurangzeb’s intense adherence to the letter
of Islam. Drawn towards the Vedanta, many Muslim mystics declared
that nothing was real except God, and everything was illusion. ‘They
even adopted the doctrines of karma and the transmigration of the soul.
‘They refrained from denouncing image-worship and preached ahimsa,
nonviolence. Unlike the Sufis elsewhere, many Indian Sufis did not regard
Muhammad as the perfect man, but as the equal of other prophets. He
became a hero like Krishna in the Mahabharata, The Quran no longet
remained the only holy book, but one of numerous holy scriptures,
including those of other religions. The Sufis condemned religious
bigotry and fanaticism, and preached the essential unity of all religions:
In India the Sufis approximated the Hindu practices of meditation and
asceticism.

As might be expected of any great religious movement with a long
history and a succession of saint-philosophers, Sufism developed 3
number of sects. In India there were three chief ones—Dogmat
(Kalam), Philosophy (Hikmat), and Mysticism (tasawwuf). All these
schools professed fundamentally similar philosophies but each was
conditioned by a distinct intellectual tradition. The most original thinker

"of the Indian Dogmatics was Shah Wali Ullah of Delhi (d. 1762), WP?
is compared with Al Ghazali. He endeavoured to reconcile theolo8!
pe gee 682

IMPACT OF ISLAM ON INDIAN SOCIETY

and philosophy and entered a powerful plea for moral reconstruction
and social reform. The Dogmatics did not believe in conversion and
considered all religious rituals and dogmas superfluous.

Dara Shikoh stands out amonsgst those who sought to harmonize
Hindu and Muslim mystic philosophies, abandoned dogma, preached
simple faith founded on the love of God, and stressed the fundamental
unity of faiths. The eldest son of Shahjahan, he wrote a number of
treatises on Muslim mysticism and expounded the identity of Hindu and
Muslim mystic thought. In his Majma al-Bahrain, he sought to reconcile
the Sufi theory with the Vedanta. He emphasized the yearning of the
soul for unity with God (tawhid) and the conception of God as absolute.
His assertion of the fundamental unity of being, and his teaching that
the Upanishads and the Quran both sought the same truth provoked the
wrath of Muslim orthodoxy. Dara translated several of the Upanishads
into Persian under the title Sirr-ul-Akbar, and it was in this form that they
first became known to European scholars. There was perhaps no other
prince in the history of Muslim India who could match his scholarship
and who was so passionately devoted to the spiritual life.

633

Chapter V

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

INDIA WAS KNOWN to Europe in ancient times; indeed, parts of both
Greece and India were under Iranian domination at the same time.
Greek and Indian soldiers had fought together and against each other;
diplomatic, commercial, and cultural relations existed for centuries
between India and the Hellenic and the Hellenistic worlds; and countless
adventurers, scholars, merchants, and missonaries had travelled to and
fro. However, this close contact ceased after the emergence of Islamic
power in the seventh century, and during the Middle Ages there was
little or no direct intercourse between India and the West. European
knowledge of India was remote during the Crusades, and was, at
best, fragmentary during the mediaeval period. Something of India
was known through travel accounts, such as those of Marco Polo,
but here reality often gave way to romantic imagination. However,
Indian influence can definitely be traced in some works of literature.
For instance, in the Alexander Song, composed by Priest Lambrecht in
the twelfth century, the flower girls, in their charming existence as half
flowers—half humans, show a surprising similarity to the daughters of
Mara who were supposed to seduce the Buddha. From the Alexander
novel, the story, Girl with the Poison, entered the poetry of Frauenlob,
Hugo von Trimberg, and others. This story belongs to Indian tradition
in connection with the Maurya king, Chandragupta, and is found in
Visakhadatta’s play, Mudraraksasa. Again, the hero, Parzival, in Wolfram
von ÈE enbach’s poetry becomes the embodiment of compassion 20

a RORY

i
|
|
|
|

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

mercy as the positive result of the commandment not to kill. Remarkable,
too, is the description of the “schastel marvel” and the “lit marveile”
which is reminiscent of the Buddhist stupas. Moreover, the development
of the legend of Priest John who spread Christianity in India, and for
whom the Portuguese went looking in vain, may well have a basis in
some kind of cultural contact.

During the fifteenth century the Renaissance spirit drew Europe out
of mediaevalism, and the new religious and commercial zeal inspired
European explorers to find a direct sea link with India. It was the quest
for India that led Columbus to stumble onto America in 1493. After
persistent exploratory expeditions, the Portuguese, in their bid to reduce
the power of the Muslims of North Africa and Western Asia, as well as
in search of “Christians and spices,” circumnavigated Africa, crossed the
Arabian Sea with the assistance of an Indian sailor, and reached Calicut
on the southwest coast of India, on 27 May 1498. This success eventually
led to the almost complete elimination of Turkish supremacy on the
Indian Ocean; the Arab trade monopoly between Asia and Europe was
also destroyed by the incoming European powers. “Tt is to the discovery
of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and to the vigour
and success with which the Portuguese prosecuted their conquests and
established their dominion there, that Europe has been indebted for its
preservation from the most illiberal and humiliating servitude that ever
oppressed polished nations.”' This contact also slowly altered the whole
character of Indian society. India became for the first time a political and
economic appendage of another country, her weaknesses were exposed,
and the processes of modernization were stirred into motion with
increasing rapidity. The maritime activity of India, which had declined
after the fall of the Roman Empire, was revived. pona
E profitable trade was always one motive ee aes
tein Toate ns as the first European power to com oe i ae

emselves as crusaders against Islam. Every injury innucte

ors or Muslims was a gain for Christianity. Even the a of Be
nee was described as a device to reduce the e
Islam eve ne Teves bolba religious duty ang T a Peninsula
kad oe The centuries-old strugg e 10 ae NEE de

e Portuguese intensely hostile to ius

635

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

= :
Albuquerque, the Portuguese Commander, reporting the Capture of

and commerce, gloated
over the fact that he had put every Moor he could find to the sword
2

filled mosques with the bodies, and set them on fire. He calculated six
thousand persons had been killed, some roasted alive.
These acts of terror and brutalivy, initially directed principally

Goa, an important centre of international trade

against
Muslims, gradually became typical of Portuguese colonialism. They
frequently attacked vessels carrying pilgrims to Mecca and set them on
fire, sometimes with the passengers on board. The Portuguese were no
less severe on Hinduism: “The fathers of the Church forbade the Hindus
under terrible penalties the use of their own sacred books, and prevented
them from all exercise of their religion. They destroyed their temples
and mosques, and so harassed and interfered with the people that they
abandoned the city in large numbers, refusing to remain any longer in
a place where they had no liberty, and were liable to imprisonment,
torture and death if they worshipped after their own fashion the gods
of their fathers.”? The Portuguese tried to build their empire in Asia on
their bitter hatred of Islam and Hinduism. Their reign was devoid of
scruples, honour, and morality, and was a major reason for the decline
of Portuguese power.

As the Papal Bulls of Alexander III protected Portugal from other
Catholic powers, especially Spain, the Portuguese were able to carry on
their trade without rival or restriction for about a century. They established
a highly organized and flourishing commercial empire, stretching from
the coast of Malabar to the Philippines, which was incomparable to any
empire in European history. The Portuguese supplied all of Europe with
Asian goods, of which spices were the most considerable and precious
commodity. Almost all the writers of the Middle Ages confirm the
widespread demand for Indian spices in Europe. Most European dishes
were highly seasoned with Indian spices; they were regarded as essential at
every entertainment and were principal ingredients in almost all medici
prescriptions. Despite the reduction in the cost of transport due to the
discovery of the direct sea route, and the consequent cheaper price, the
Portuguese conducted such a lucrative trade that the jealousy of other
European nations eventually could no longer be contained. Consequently
jt ginning of the seventeenth century, when Mughal India was

by
636

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

ht of its glory, Dutch and British, and later French, trading

at the heig
emerged to capture the Asian trade.

companies

The anti-Muslim aspect of European expansion in Asia was soon
replaced by the rivalry between the Catholic and Protestant powers of
Europe. Holland, inspired by the Reformation which began in Germany
in 1517, revolted against Spanish tyranny and assumed independence
in 1579. Soon England joined in, and the Protestant nations defied the
Papal Bulls allocating the two halves of the world to Spain and Portugal.
Their struggle for commercial supremacy in the East was one aspect of
their religious defiance. During the reign of Elizabeth I, English world
interests had broadened, and their triumph over the Spanish Armada gave
the English confidence to expand their mercantile activity. Consequently,
the East India Company was founded in 1600 to break the lucrative
Portuguese monopoly of East Indian trade. The Portuguese were soon
dislodged, and the European desire for profit and power made religious
rivalry insignificant; indeed, by the middle of the eighteenth century
religious rivalry had assumed the pronounced character of a political
and economic struggle.

For over two hundred years, however, the Western powers remained
confined to coastal commerce, and acquired only small territorial
possessions in Asia because at this time the Mughals in India, the Mings
and Manchus in China, and the Safavis in Persia ruled prosperous and
powerful states. These Asian states were strong land powers with limited
interest in maritime activities. This was especially true of the Mughals,
who had come to India by land from the northwest and did not appreciate
the danger to their security from the sea, or the importance of maritime
Power. When they did realize their mistake it was too late; they had
become too weak even on land to reverse the process. The early Europeans
a to India cs traders, not as invaders, which pe x
tee ee in their activities for some time, u it i Lennie
iene ughals, who were so jealous of the integrity aai eae

ave failed to detect it. The era of the great us
after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 and throughout the eighteenth
oe local poves continued to decline. 4 a ee
= eke domination of India and the industt®
of the West.

637

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

‘The Mughal period was in many respects a glorious period of Indian

art and culture
but they completely neglected practical and secular ue en

the sciences. Throughout their long rule, no institution was established
comparable to the modern university, although early India had world-
famous centres of learning, such as Taxila, Nalanda, and Kanchi. There
were flourishing universities in mediaeval Europe, as in other parts
of the Islamic world, some of which had been in existence for some
centuries. The University of Paris, which became the model not only for
the universities of France but also for Oxford and Cambridge, had an
organized pattern and legal status by the early thirteenth century. By the
seventeenth century, a number of universities had come into existence
in Europe. These universities nurtured intellectualism and laid the
foundations of Western scientific culture through disciplined thinking,
systematic investigation, and free discussion of knowledge. What is
significant is that the European university had borrowed freely from the
ancient Asian and Islamic models, which really were a part of the Mughal
inheritance. Although their court was frequented by European visitors,
the Mughals took no interest in European knowledge and technological
accomplishments. Akbar received many European missionaries, and
Ibadat Khana discussed religion and theology with them and protected
them against the fanatic mullas. Christian missionaries at Akbar’s Court
came fully equipped, having learned Persian and read the Quran, and
repeatedly had the edge in discussion over the Muslim mullas who argued
with intense faith but with no knowledge of their opponents’ holy book.
Neither the nobles nor the mullas was stirred into learning Latin and
investigating the Bible. Nor did Akbar show any curiosity in European
science and philosophy, although both Hindus and Muslims had made
notable scientific contributions in the past. Akbar was presented with
printed books and a printing press, yet even the Indian classics were first
printed by Europeans. It is, therefore, not surprising that during m
period of European struggle for power, India was in a state of unparallele
decline, which not only made it possible for the Europeans to pursue
their rivalries at will but also to do so with unique success.

The Mughals’ power was gone, and a long trail of political upheavals
followed. Intellectual inertia, already in evidence, became the prominent

history, and the Mughals devoted much attention to

638

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

feature of Indian society, and the country lapsed into chaos, anarchy, and
confusion. Eighteenth century India, in contrast to renaissant Europe,
was so weak that it had little control over its affairs. It could not even tip
the balance in favour of one of the European contenders struggling for
power over Indian territory. It was the British who eventually triumphed
in this contest, although it was the French who first conceived of
European hegemony over Indian rulers.
In this struggle for power, technology, rather than diplomacy, played
a decisive role. In purely military terms, the West won command of the
East because of two things—ships and, more important, gunpowder.* To
these could be added military organization and strategy. Superior armoury
soon bred a military mentality and an aggressive policy. Immunity from
retaliatory action led, at times, to unbridled tyranny. The West developed
the bronze gun out of the bell-founding industry. Spain and Portugal,
the first considerable ocean-goers of the times, borrowed northern
European technology and met the cost of production from their overseas
trade. England entered the arena later, successfully substituted cast iron
for bronze, and, with the newer and cheaper technique, asserted her
supremacy over others. By 1600 England was not only self-sufficient in
artillery but also exported guns profitably. About the same time, France,
and alittle later Germany, entered the gun-making industry and eventually
surpassed the English lead. Asians did not achieve any comparable results
but fell farther and farther behind, and it was not until the middle of this
century that they began to catch up with Europe in the race for arms.
Whilst the British were struggling for political supremacy in India,
European scholars began an investigation into Indian literature and
heritage. Some of these scholars were inspired by the spirit of inquiry,
cee utilitarian ends, but they all began to explore eee:
g backwards from its current phase to its earliest one. Lhey
began, understandably, by learning the languages spoken in the areas
wees ae a : ably, y earning 3 m litical activities: They
er see e on their commercial ue po Seine
through T i Re le emi: See el with Indian
iterature a e modem Europi Cer aa ae were made to gain
arte 2 religion. It was only later that e ; E
ge of the ancient classical language of India, Sanskrit,

0 es oe
€ vedic literature and the early civilization.

639

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Discounting the mythical Sighelmus alleged to have been sent by
Alfred on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas at Mailapur, the first
Englishman to visit India was a Jesuit priest, Thomas Stevens. He arrived
in Goa in 1579 and was one of the first Europeans in modern times to
study Indian languages seriously. He published a Konkani grammar,
and in 1615 a remarkable poem entitled Kristana Purana, which was
the story of the Bible intended for Indian converts to Christianity. He
was a great admirer of the Marathi language, which he described as “a
jewel among pebbles.”

At about the same time, a Dutchman, Jan Huyghen Van Linschoten,
published his I#ineratio in 1595-1596 in which he referred to the
imprisonments and tortures inflicted upon Indians by the Portuguese
Inquisition. A Florentine merchant, Filippo Sassetti, who studied at the
University of Pisa for six years (1568-1574) and lived at Goa for five
years (1583-1588), collected a wide variety of data on India. Most of the
letters in which his information was recorded deal with meteorological
observations, but others deal with Indian folklore, science, and medicine.
His interest in pharmaceutical texts awakened his interest in Sanskrit. He
was, perhaps, the first person to declare that some relationship existed
between Sanskrit and the principal languages of Europe.

Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, several other isolated
missionaries and travellers acquired certain, chiefly impressionistic
knowledge of Indian literature, language, and contemporary life but
few made any serious attempt to understand Indian civilization. hey
accepted Indian culture at its face value without investigating its origins
or studying it in its proper historical perspective. 4

‘Those Europeans who came to India at the time were a motley crony
of merchants and medicos, envoys and ecclesiastics, soldiers and sailors,
adventurers and fortune seekers. They arrived from different countries
by different routes with different motives; some eccentrics, such as m
Coryat even walked all the way from Aleppo to Ajmer. Seeking pecunia!
gain or excitement, these early Europeans were generally untutored an
ill-equipped to either transmit or absorb ideas. The English were n9
exception. Trade, and only trade, was their object and they endeavours
to attain it, as merchants still do, not necessarily by sharing the beliefs 2
their customers or even by understanding their culture, but by making

640

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

themselves agreeable to them. Consequently, they adopted Indian habits
in food, often married Indian women, and respected Indian customs,
beliefs, and authority. As traders they were concerned only with making
money, regardless of scruples, morality, and learning. India was an “El
Dorado” for enterprising young men in search of a fortune.

The travellers who carried information about India back to Europe
were inadequately informed about the geography and society of the
country as a whole, and their stay, in most cases, was too brief for accurate
knowledge. Moreover, like most foreign visitors, they did not bring
unprejudiced minds to the alien land, and whilst they fully understood
and rationalized their own shortcomings and inconsistencies, they
were much too willing to believe and record, if not magnify, anything
which even vaguely had the ring of the extraordinary, unfamiliar, or
exciting. And the complexities of Indian society and beliefs were far too
paradoxical to lend themselves to easy comprehension. Furthermore, the
impressions and the narratives of European travellers had unfortunately
become stereotyped, and each visitor referred to practically the same
things, as if he had come to India with preconceived ideas and was merely
looking for reinforcement. Whilst some useful information reached
Europe through these travellers, references to the exotic and romantic
East became frequent and indiscriminate in European literature. At
best, seventeenth-century India to the European was the India of the
great Mughals, depicted with extravagant imagination. For instance
Dryden's popular drama, Aurengzebe published in 1675, portrayed the
Mughal Court quite fantastically. Unrealiable as these narratives were,
they sueceeded in projecting a picture of India in Europe which has
never fully worn off.

Iltis significant that although the early European travellers were im-
bued with an anti-Islamic bias, they usually accepted the fanatic Muslim
Point of view about the Hindus, presumably because they shared the
Judaic tradition with Muslims, knew a good deal about Islam which was
no longer so strange by that time, and also because they were tkan by
r splendour of the Mughal Court. They looked upon the pindua
sere and superstitions, This attitude TT yoni

ubois, who focused their attention almost ex y

darker side of Hinduism, and sought to replace it with their own faith.

641

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Alexander Pope's (1688-1744) couplet is typical of the British response
to Indian ideas as they understood them:
Lo the poor Indian whose
untutored mind.
Sees God in clouds or hears
him in the wind.

The French response to India was somewhat different from that of
the British, possibly because many of the French travellers who came to
India were known for their literary taste and gave interesting accounts
of their travels. J. B. Tavernier, ‘Thévenot, Francois Bernier, and Abbé
Carré concentrated on the Mughal Court and Empire in their travel
accounts. Tavernier, a jewel merchant, travelled to India as many as
five times between 1641 and 1668. A competent businessman, he had
no education or refinement, however, and wrote more to amuse than to
inform. He probably saw more of India than any other traveller in the
seventeenth century, although he said little that is worth remembering;
his anecdotes are childish and often offensive. Bernier is better known, for
he was an educated man, and was responsible for bringing Indian ideas
to some of the prominent French scholars of the day. He spent twelve
years as a physician at the Mughal Court, and upon his return met the
eminent French fabulist, La Fontaine, at Mme. de la Sablier’s Salon,
and shared his knowledge of India with him and Pascal, the philosopher
and mathematician. Jean Racine (1630-1699) gave a flattering por trayal
of Puru, Alexander’s Indian adversary, in his Alexandre. A friend and
disciple of Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint Pierre (1737-1814), who had
lived in Mauritius for two years, wrote Le Café de Surat and other pieces
with an Indian setting. a

In 1778 a work was published dealing with Sanskrit literature, veilt
legends, and doctrines, called L’Ezour Vedam, which created a sensation
in the West by attracting the attention of Voltaire. But it was later snova
to be a work faked by a European missionary, Roberto de Nobili, w
the purpose of converting Hindus in the seventeenth century.“ Earlier
Voltaire had published a tragi-comic story relating the adventures of

Hindu and his wife, as well as his Historical Fragments on India. Whilst

642

|
|

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

Voltaire’s information on India came from unreliable sources, he believed
that the West received its knowledge of astronomy, astrology, and
metempsychosis from India, and he looked to India for truth with the
eyes ofa disillusioned European.

Several other well-known French writers of the Enlightenment were
somewhat familiar with India. Diderot wrote several articles on Indian
religion and philosophy in the Encylopédie of 1751. In 1770 Abbé Rayal,
with the assistance of Diderot, d’Holback, and Naigon, produced the
Philosophical and Political History of the Europeans in the two Indias.

Not long after the publication of Voltaire’s works, Abbé Dubois fled
France as a political refugee from the Revolution to live in India for
thirty-one years. Typical of the class of people who regard themselves
as charged with civilizing the heathens, and convinced of the superiority
of his own civilization, he published his widely read Hindu Manners,
Customs and Ceremonies, which, despite his laboriously collected data,
is essentially a scathing criticism of Hindu belief and practices. Even if
allowance is made for the Roman Catholic standards he applied to the
Indian religions, many of his observations are grossly inaccurate and
appear to be deliberate distortions. What is incredible, however, is that
his work, despite the decisive exposition of its errors, has enjoyed almost
continuous popularity in Europe, and was long accepted as a standard
interpretation of Indian religions.

Jacquemont, who visited India during the reign of Ranjit Singh, wrote
Hindu Heroes and Heroines. Lemierre’s Veuve du Malabar, published in
1770, was epoch-making. M. de Jouy wrote the Tipoo Sahib and the
opera, Les Bayaderes, in 1810, which Napoleon himself attended.

Meanwhile a few missionaries had been taking a close interest in
Sanskrit, In the beginning, having come first to South India, they learned
Tamil or some other South Indian language. It was only after some time
that they felt the need to learn Sanskrit. A German priest, Heinrich Roth
(1610-1688) was the first European to produce a Sanskrit grammar,

whi : j 2
hich was written in Latin and remained in manuscript form. In 1651,

à Dutch preacher named Abraham Roger, who had lived at Pulicat near
am Open Door to

oe as well as in Indonesia, published in Amsterd
idden Heathendom. This book included about two hundred proverbs ©

€ Sanskrit poet, Bhartrihari, from a Portuguese translation, and not

643

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

only described the customs and religion of the Hindus but also Mentioned
the Vedas for the first time. Translated into German in 1663, it was
drawn upon by Herder (1744-1813) for his Stimmen der Volker in Liedern
(Voices of the Peoples in Songs). After the stories of the Pancatantra,
this work was the first Indian literature to become known in Germany,
A German Jesuit, Johann Ernst Hanxleden, who worked in Malabar
from 1699 to 1732, compiled a Sanskrit grammar in Latin and one in
Malayalam. His Sanskrit grammar also remained unpublished but was
used by the Austrian missionary, Fra Paolino de St. Bartholomeo (whose
real name was Johannes Philippus Wessdin), “undeniably the most
important of the missionaries who worked at the earliest opening-up of
Indian literature.” He lived on the Malabar coast from 1776 to 1789
and was well acquainted with Indian literature, languages, and religions.
He wrote two Sanskrit grammars in Rome in 1790 and several learned
treatises. Another missionary, Coeurdoux, suggested in 1767 that there
was a kinship between Sanskrit and European languages. He reached
this conclusion with the help of Maridas Pillai of Pondicherry. It appears
that he was quite familiar with Sanskrit literature. He correctly describes
its system of grammar and refers to the Amarakosa and other Sanskrit
dictionaries as well as to the Indian system of poetics, called alamkara.
He also describes the six systems of Indian philosophy, in addition to
Buddhism and Jainism. s
The English were most closely bound in political and cultural relations
with India, and although they initiated a systematic investigation of
Sanskrit literature, most of the work on the subject was done on the
continent, particularly in France and Germany. Perhaps the Anglo-
Indian political association, enforced and unequal as it was and often
clouded’ by mutual distrust and fear, was not conducive to a deeper
British appreciation of the Indian heritage. Morevoer, the remarkable
practical qualities of the British in commerce, military ore
and administration, and their faculty for recognizing and making use °
opportunities, inevitably, although not inordinately, subordinated ae
__ cultural and intellectual sensitivities. Hence it was administrative nee*
_ which initially induced the British to study Sanskrit. i
Despite the loss of countless texts, today there are-scores of thousan
_ of Sanskrit manuscripts in various libraries. When Alexander came, thet

644

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

existed in India an ancient literature far richer than that in Greece at the
time. The first scholar to publish a real dissertation on Sanskrit learning
was Alexander Dow, in a preface to his history of India, which appeared
in Europe in three volumes in 1768. Whilst his history leaned heavily on
Ferishta, his Preface carried a significant account of Hindu religion and
customs. He pointed out the existence of innumerable ancient Sanskrit
texts, observing that the authentic history of the Hindus went back farther
than that of any other nation.

The turning point in the European discovery of India’s past came
during Warren Hastings’ Governor-Generalship. By this time the British
had gained control of Bengal and their commercial interests in India
depended on their ability to eliminate rampant corruption in their own
ranks and to rationalize the administration of their Indian possessions.
The merchants of the East India Company were generally greedy and
corrupt, filling their own pockets by cheating the Company and the
Indians. Their contributions to India were political anarchy, economic
exploitation, cruel taxation, extravagant wars, unjust intervention, and
forged treaties. London was appalled at this tarnishing of the British name.

Born in 1732, Warren Hastings was the son of a clergyman from an
old and once wealthy family. He went to India at the age of seventeen as
awriter in the Company’s service and, through his varied experiences in
trade and administration, he acquired an exceptional knowledge of the
Indian mind and temperament. Well-disposed towards Indian literature
and culture, he stressed the need for the study of Sanskrit, albeit mainly
for utilitarian reasons. Hastings also realized that British supremacy in
India could rest only on a proper understanding of Indian religion and
culture. Although he was impeached for acts of corruption and anny: >
he gave the beginnings of a sound administration to British India. For

the codification of the laws of the land and for the efficient operation of

the administration, it was essential to gain an accurate knowledge of de
ancient Sanskrit legal texts. Hastings had the Indian law books compiled
by the local learned pundits under the title of Vivadarnavasetu (meaning

Tidge over the ocean of dispute) but there was no one who could translate
the resultant text into English. Hence, a Persian translation was made
and an English translation of this was published in London in 1776. This

Was entitled 4 Code of Gentoo Laws by N- B. Halhead, a schoolmate of

645

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Sir William Jones. This second-hand transl
of Sanskrit philology.

The first Englishman who, urged by Warren Hastings, acquired
a knowledge of Sanskrit was Charles Wilkins (1749-1836), He
was a founding member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and had
acquired considerable knowledge of Sanskrit at Varanasi (Banaras),
He subsequently became the first librarian of the famous India Of}
Library at London, then known as the East India Company Library,
He is described by his contemporaries as the first European who really
understood Sanskrit, and he gave Europe its earliest acquaintance
with actual Sanskrit writing. H. T. Colebrooke, a founder of Sanskrit
scholarship in Europe, said that Wilkins had more information and
knowledge respecting the Hindus than any other foreigner since the
days of Pythagoras. In 1785 Wilkins published an English translation
of the Bhagavad Gita—the first Sanskrit work rendered directly into a
European language. Later, Wilkins published the Hitopadesa (1787)
and the Sakuntala episode from the Mahabharata (1795). These Sanskrit
works were translated principally to familarize European intellectuals
with Indian ideas; their literary merit was a subordinate consideration, if
at all. Thirteen years later, in 1808, Wilkins’ Sanskrit grammar appeared,
using Devanagari type (which he himself had carved and cast) for the first
time in Europe. Wilkins also initiated the study of Indian inscriptions
and translated some of them into English.

It was, however, the celebrated Orientalist, Sir William Jones
(1746-1794), who pioneered Sanskrit studies. He came to India as 4
puisne judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta in September 1783,
having already gained competence in Asian learning, especially Persian
and Arabic, and having formed a deep appreciation of Indian culture. He
had ardently sought the Indian appointment, and had waited in bay
uncertainty for five years, first, in order to make enough money Ee Be
able to retire early and conduct his researches without financial won,
and second, to “give the finishing stroke to his Oriental knowledge. He
lived in India for about ten years, until his premature death, and ve
extremely happy there. He said that, although he was never unhappy R
England, for it was not in his nature to be unhappy, he was never re? J
content until he was settled in India.

ation introduced the study

ce

-646

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

His admiration for Indian thought and culture was almost limitless

“Jt gave me inexpressible pleasure to find myself in the midst of so noble

zin amphitheatre, almost encircled by the vast regions of Asia, which

has ever
actions, fertile in the productions of human genius, abounding in natural

a been esteemed the nurse of sciences, the scene of glorious

wonders, and infinitely in the forms of religion and government in
the laws, manners, customs, and languages, as well in the features and
complexions, of men.” Even at a time when Hinduism was at a low ebb
and it was quite fashionable to run it down, he held it in great esteem.
Whilst Jones believed in Christ and Christianity, he was attracted to the
Hindu concepts of the non-duality of God, as interpreted by Sankara,
and the transmigration of the human soul. The latter theory he found
more rational than the Christian doctrine of punishment and eternity
of pain. Writing to his erstwhile pupil and close friend, Earl Spencer,
in 1787, after three years in India, he said: “I am no Hindu; but I hold
the doctrine of the Hindus concerning a future state to be incomparably
more rational, more pious, and more likely to deter men from vice, than
the horrid opinions, inculcated on punishments without end.”*
Although he had nourished political ambitions, which fortunately for
Oriental learning did not materialize, and although he was a professional
barrister, Jones was essentially a scholar. He was a brilliant Orientalist
and linguist, for whom his eminent contemporaries, such as Burke,
Gibbon, Sheridan, Garrick, and Johnson, had great respect. Literary
London admired him so much that he was elected a member of the Club,
Samuel Johnson’s immortal coterie, a month before even Boswell was
given that honour, He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in April
1772 when he was learning Sanskrit during his initial years in India. His
interest in botany was much more than mere pleasure; it was stimulated
by his deep religious feelings, for in every flower, every leaf, and every
berry he could see the attributes of God more eloquently illustrated than
in the wisdom of man.
vine erika
Months = = Hi ma left a a aa the famous Asiatic
ociety of S at zi Soan oe ace until his death. The
Object of th ee ofwhich hE Ena See ulture: literature,
e Society was to inquire into the history, CHE

647

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and science of Asia; it has done enormous work to advance the knowl

of Asian civilization both in India and abroad. It was in the rouse
this Society, Asiatick Researches, that the initial attempts were made to
unearth India’s past. Within three years Jones became so Proficient in
Sanskrit that he could converse familiarly with Indian pundits. In 1789,
five years after his arrival in India, he published in Calcutta his translation
of the celebrated Sanskrit drama, Abhijnana Sakuntala, by Kalidasa.’ This
work became so popular that it went into five English editions in less
than twenty years. In 1791 a German translation of the English version
was made by George Forster, the world traveller and revolutionary. This
inspired men like Herder and Goethe. Many other translations of the
Sakuntala were made in the first half of the nineteenth century from
Jones’ English version, and later from the Sanskrit original.

In 1792 Jones brought out an English translation of Jayadeva’s
Gita Govinda, and published in Calcutta, Kalidasa’s Ritusambara in
the original; this was the first Sanskrit text ever printed. Of greater
importance, however, was his translation of the well-known legal text
of ancient India, the Manusmriti, which was published posthumously in
1794 under the title Institutes of Hindu Law or the Ordinances of Manu.
‘Three years later, in 1797, a German translation of the book appeared.
Not only did Jones produce excellent translations but he also wrote
original hymns to Indian deities, which are lasting monuments of Anglo-
Indian literature. By the time of his death, his reputation as a Sanskrit
scholar had eclipsed all his many other accomplishments.

Jones was the first British scholar to definitely assert the genealogical
connection of Sanskrit with Greek and Latin, and possibly with Persian,
German, and Celtic. In his third annual discourse of the Asiatic Society
on 2 February 1786, he declared that the Sanskrit language was of a
wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious a
the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to bot
of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms °
grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident. All three
languages must have come from some common source.” f

The greatest influence of Jones’ work was, of course, on the study $
Oriental learning itself. The interest in Indian literature awakened by
_ Jones and Wilkins, led to scholars searching for Sanskrit manuscripts

648

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

«with the avidity of explorers seeking Australian goldfields.”!! Of
those scholars, the most outstanding was Henry Thomas Colebrooke
(1765-1837), who put the study of Sanskrit on a scientific footing. “Had
he lived in Germany,” says Max Müller, “we should long ago have seen

his statue in his native place, his name written in the letters of gold on

the walls of acadamies; we should have heard of Colebrooke jubilees

and Colebrooke scholarships. In England if any notice is taken of the

discovery of Sanskrit—a discovery in many respects equally important, in

some even more important, than the revival of Greek scholarship in the

fifteenth century—we may possibly hear the popular name of Sir William

Jones and his classical translation of Sakuntala; but of the infinitely more

important achievements of Colebrooke, not one word.”

Colebrooke entered the service of the East India Company in 1782
and left India in 1815 at the age of fifty. During this period he had a
distinguished career as an administrator and lawyer, but his claim to
eminence is mainly based upon his being “the founder and the father of
true Sanskrit scholarship in Europe.”

He pursued his study of Sanskrit most energetically with the assistance
of some excellent Indian instructors. A man of extraordinary industry
and clear intellect, Colebrooke published many texts, translations, and
essays dealing with practically all aspects of Sanskrit literature. His
writings included works on Indian law, philosophy, religion, grammar,
astronomy, and arithmetic. In 1797-1798, he published his first four-
volume translation, 4 Digest of Hindu Law on Contracts and Successions,
which immediately established his reputation as the best Sanskrit scholar
of his day. His famous Essay on the Vedas, published in 1805, the same ye
as his Sanskrit Grammar, gave the first definite and reliable information
on the sacred Hindu texts. In 1808 he published a critical edition of the
Amarakosa, a Sanskrit lexicon. By this time Colebrooke had become
President of the Court of Appeal, a high and lucrative position, but
demanding; nevertheless, he continued his Sanskrit studies.

Unlike Jones, Colebrooke’s interests lay chiefly in scientific literature.

aoe mathematics and astronomy stile a

such as E Tad iano eae tes > it Pe through

hee urrow and Strachey had preceded him, i ia
ork that scientists were able to form a clear idea of t

to

649

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

achievement in mathematics, especially indeterminate analysis, But itis

chiefly for his philological researches and services to Indian jurisprudence

that Colebrooke is remembered.

Apart from his writings, he collected a wide variety of Sanskrit
manuscripts and presented them to the East India Company in 1818
‘This collection is one of the most valuable treasures of the India Office
Library in London. In 1822 he founded the Royal Asiatic Society in
London which has since done much to promote Oriental learning in
Europe. He published many of his most valuable papers in this Society's
Transactions.

An eminent English contemporary of Colebrooke, Horace Hayman
Wilson came to India in the Medical Service of the East India Company
and became deeply interested in Sanskrit studies. He pursued his
interest with vigour and industry, and published his elegant translation
of Kalidasa’s Meghaduta in 1813; this made both an immediate and a
lasting impact on European readers, and it has since been translated into
many languages. In 1819, Wilson published his Sanskrit dictionary and
he translated the Visnu Parana into English. In 1832, he became the first
occupant of the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford and this provided
him a fuller opportunity to advance the study of Indology. By this time,
however, Indian studies in England had lost their earlier vigour. The
British, now masters of India and the supreme maritime power of the
day, were less inclined to learn from aliens; they listened to Macaulay
instead.

Two professors of Sanskrit, Wilson at Oxford and Lee at Cambridge,
bemoaned the fact that not much attention was paid at their respective
universities to Sanskrit, a language “capable of giving a soul w the
objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of metaphysics. he
best philological works published in England were generally translations
from the German.”

France began to take a closer interest in Indian learning and
commenced a systematic investigation by the beginning of the eighteen"
century. In 1718, Bignan, the librarian of the French king, asked travellers
to purchase or make a copy of every book of note, as well as grammars
and dictionaries available in India or in regions where Indian culture
prevailed. In response, many French officials, residents, missionaries,

650

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

visitors began to acquire Indian texts. The missionary, Calmette,
obtained copies of the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Sama Veda,
although he failed to get a copy of the fourth Veda, the Atharva Veda.
The Rig Veda was first sent to Paris in 1731, together with its Aitareya
Brahmana. Other Sanskrit books, such as Gangesa’s Tattvacintamani,
which was very popular at the time in the southern and eastern regions of
India, together with some Tamil books, a Tamil grammar, and a Tamil

and

dictionary, were also sent to France about the same time by the Italian
Jesuit, Beschi. A number of books were obtained from Bengal. Pere
Pons, stationed in Chandernagore, succeeded in collecting main works
in the different branches of classical Sanskrit literature. His catalogue
containing one hundred and sixty-eight entries was astonishingly accurate
for its time. Pons, who himself knew Sanskrit, had been assisted in the
selection of his manuscripts by competent Indian scholars. His collection
included a Sanskrit grammar which he had written in Latin, following
the Samkshiptasara, and a Latin translation of the Amarakosa. Because of
the labours of these men the first printed catalogue of Sanskrit literature
was published in Paris in 1739. The following year, Pons published in a
letter, which has been repeatedly reproduced since, the first sound report
on Sanskrit literature.

Whilst the difficulties of reading these manuscripts held up progress.
French scholars learned something of Indian thought and history through
Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Greek, and Latin works. The collection of
Indian materials continued, however, and Joseph Deguignes accumulated
as much material as was possible from non-Indian sources. Strictly
speaking, Deguignes was not an Indologist; he was essentially a Sinologist
who wrote a vast history of the Huns, but he gathered remarkably accurate
knowledge about India. He was perhaps the first modern European to
Boe through his study of Chinese sources, the wide influence of
nc An nC ee
ieee part ofan nacon i a pment in fixing the basis
thee ‘ ticles, Still greater was his e, E sam
Indian a PR a a who knew Latin
and F olar of Tamil Maridas Pillai ofPondi iei ignificant, and

Tench well. Both these contributions are extremely sign! 3

are > ded
worthy of much greater recognition than has hitherto been accor

651

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

to Deguignes. Possibly because of their background of English education

Indians have exhibited equal indifference to the contribution of Maridas

at period
were indebted to him for most of the valuable information. He apparently

played a part in the discovery of original links between Sanskrit on the
one hand, and Latin and Greek on the other. The astronomer Le Gentil
one of the first who gave substantial account of Indian astronomy, ae
that he himself had been a grateful pupil of Maridas Pillai and of other
‘Tamil scholars of Pondicherry in that matter.” Some of his translations
and analyses of Indian texts were profitably used by French scholars. For
instance his translation of the Bagavatam was sent to Deguignes before
its publication, and it was in this manuscript that the latter found the
dynastic lists of the Suryavamsa and the Somavamsa kings who had
reigned since Parikshit, including Chandragupta which Deguignes
immediately recognized as the Sandrokottos of the Greeks. This
synchronism was published in the Mémoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions
et Belles Lettres; this same synchronism was rediscovered by Sir William
Jones, who is generally given the credit for identifying it. Whilst Jones
may not have been the real discoverer of Indian chronology, he indeed
popularized it.

At about this time, Anquétil du Perron (1731-1805) visited India and
later prepared the first European translation in Latin of the Upanishads
from the literal Persian version made for the Mughal prince, Dara
Shikoh, in 1636. As a young man of twenty-three, du Perron, whilst
working in the Bibliothéque de Roi at Paris in 1754, saw a fragment
of a mysterious manuscript which the Bodleian Library at Oxford had
acquired in 1718 and which was reputed to be a book by Zoroaster. Du
Perron was so moved by it that he at once decided to visit India and learn
the language so that he could read it. He arrived at Pondicherry in 175 i
This was the period when the English and the French were engaged $
a bitter conflict for supremacy in India and du Perron was caught in E
He finally managed to learn Persian at Surat, and returned home "4
England in 1762. Whilst studying at Surat, he discovered the Avesta, oe
_ published his Zend-Avesta in three volumes in 1771. He also publishe
n account of his travels, Voyage aux Grandes Indes, in 1781.

u Perron acquired the Persian manuscript of the Upanishad

Pillai. “All French scholars who visited Pondicherry during th

sin

652

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

1775 from M. Gentil, the French Resident at Fyzabad in North Bengal,
and he translated them into French word for word, in the Persian word-
order. Realizing his error, he set out to make a Latin translation of
fifty Upanishads. He finished the work in 1796, but it was not printed
until 1801-1802 in Paris. It is remarkable that this translation of the
Upanishads, which had so profound an influence on European thought,
was an incidental product of a venture undertaken for an altogether
different purpose.

With Wilkins’ version of the Bhagavad Gita, and du Perron’s
translation of the Upanishads, entitled Oxpenekhat, the fundamental
texts of Indian philosophy were available to Western thinkers. Du
Perron did not know Sanskrit but, despite the imperfections of his
translations, it made an important contribution to European knowledge.
It caught the attention of the German philosopher, Schelling, and later
of Schopenhauer, who in 1813 praised it as “a production of the highest
human wisdom” and adopted an upanishadic motto, “whosoever knows
God, himself becomes God.”

For many decades, attention in France had been centered on China,
about which much was heard from the sympathetic reports of Jesuit
missionaries, mariners, and merchants; on Siam with whom France
had come into diplomatic contact; and on Western and Central Asia,
with which Europe had been closely linked historically and culturally.
To Europe, China appeared culturally unique and politically powerful.
Thus China came to influence European life in many respects, ranging
ftom religious thought to opera. Hebrew had been taught regularly at the
Collége Royal, later called College de France, since its inception in the
See century. Syriac, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish were also actively
ee Consequently, when France awakened to a ee
Siti ae: an existing tradition of learning into us Bo a
` sees y fit. French possessions in India, and later o

a, provided further incentive for French interest.
a cee mined French scholar of Persian studies, baie ae
me a passionate admirer of William Jones’ translation

Sakuntala, He ead the masterpiece in its
Original. WV;

was seized by the desire to 1 i d later of
ith th ə f the Amarakosa, an
e help of Pons’ grammar oi the g Sanskrit. By

*ins’ translation of the Hitopadesa, he began learnin,

653

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

sheer perseverance and remarkable ingenuity he was finally able to realize
his dream—to read and even publish, the text of the Sakuntala.

Leonard de Chézy, like many contemporary French thinkers, realized
that Europe should be acquainted with the achievements of Asian nations.
Consequently, there developed in France an influential body of Opinion
advocating the study of India as well as China. As a result in 1814, a Chair
of Sanskrit and a Chair of Chinese were created for Chézy and Abel-
Rémusat respectively. These Chairs, a radical innovation in academic
life, were set up between the disasters of 1814 and Waterloo, when the
whole nation was undergoing political unrest and military conflicts. Only
a nation like France, whose intellectual and cultural attitudes dominated
most of Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, could
turn its attention to scholarship at such a time.

Although Abel-Rémusat was a Sinologist, he made important
contributions to Indology by collecting Chinese data on India and
translating the account of Fa-hsien’s travels. Both de Chézy and Abel-
Rémusat died of cholera in 1832, but their traditions did not die with
them. Abel-Rémusat’s successor was Stanislas Julien, who furthered
research on Indian antiquity through Chinese documents. De Chézy
was followed by several outstanding pupils. Amongst these were two
Germans: Franz Bopp, the founder of the comparative philology of Indo-
European languages, and August Schlegel. His French pupils included
Loiseleur Deslongchamps, who published the Manusmriti and the
Amarakosa, and Langlois, who was responsible for the first translations
made directly from the manuscripts of the Rig Veda and the Hate
But the most important of all was Eugene Burnouf, who in turn hac
many eminent students, including Max Müller. .

Eugène Burnoufs father, Jean-Louis Burnouf, had been a een
of de Chézy, and was an able classical scholar who was amongst 1
- first to realize that much progress could be made in the morphology
of European classical languages by a comparison with anes
Eugéne Burnouf learned Sanskrit not so much to study philology *
to investigate the depths of Indian culture, as well as comprehen
hitherto unknown languages and the civilizations associated with we
With the help of Sanskrit he was able to decipher Pali and ae

-the rules of Avestan and its relationship with Sanskrit. His 4” Essay

pea 654

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

on Pali, published in 1826 jointly with Christian Lassen, who was later
to become a leading German Indologist, led to the recognition of a
relationship between Pali and Sanskrit. Burnouf not only researched
classical Sanskrit literature, but also the fundamental vedic literature,
which had remained unused in the Royal Library for about a century.
He translated the Bhagavata Purana into French in 1840, and devoted
himself to the study of Indian Buddhism. Making use of the work done
by Deguignes and Abel-Rémusat on Chinese sources, he realized the
importance of Buddhism in the expansion of Indian culture abroad.
He made a comparative study of Buddhist texts in Pali and Sanskrit.
He wrote his famous Introduction à l Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien in
1844, and published Lotus de la Bonne Loi, an annotated translation of
the Saddharama-Pundarika, the most important Mahayana text. His
work thus led to a great advance in the study of Indian literature and
culture in Europe. He succeeded de Chézy as Professor of Sanskrit
from 1832 until his untimely death in 1853. According to him, the
publications of the Asiatic Society of Bengal were widely sold and read
in France, and people frequently bought copies of Indian classics that
were available in various languages. He also refers to the exchange of
learned publications between France and India.

MEANWHILE, IN 1822, the Société Asiatique, the first of its kind in
Europe, had been founded in Paris. Many other French scholars had
now come to take a deep interest in Indian thought. One of Burnouf’s
colleagues, the philosopher and translator of Aristotle, Barthélémy ee
Saint-Hilaire, who was later swept up to the Ministry of Foreign AS
by the peculiar current of politics, published yaluable studies on the
Nyaya and Samkhya systems of Indian philosophy. Burnouf encouraged
his Pupil Ariel to study Tamil and its literature. Ariel collected many

amil Manuscripts and translated part of the Tirukkural and the poems
of Auvaiyar, Burnouf helped Max Miiller to publish the Rig Veda, and
Rudolph Roth and Adolph Régnier to interpret it. The Piedmontese
wee Gorresio, disciple of Barthélémy de Saint-Hilaire, p

aris a monumental edition of the Ramayana, in five Toy ie
nancial assistance from the King of Sardinia. He also published two

ī 3
n translations of the work. 2

655

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Fauche translated the Ravanavadha Mahakavya of Bhartrihari, the
Gitagovinda of Jayadeva, all the works of Kalidasa, the Dasakumaracaritg
of Dandin, the Sisupalavadha of Magha, the Mricchakatika of Sudraka,
the entire Ramayana, and the first nine parvas of the Mahabharata into
French. Having read Fauche’s translation of the Ramayana in 1863, the
French historian Michelet said: “That year will always remain a dear and
cherished memory; it was the first time I had the opportunity to read
the great sacred poem of India, the divine Ramayana. If anyone has lost
the freshness of emotion, let him drink a long draught of life, and youth
from that deep chalice.”

With the creation of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in 1868, a new
centre for the study of Indology was opened up. Amongst many other
Sanskritists who flourished in France were scholars such as Paul Régnaud,
whose chief work was on Sanskrit rhetoric and on Bharatiya Natyasastra,
Hauvette-Besnault, Auguste Barth, Abel Bergaigne, and Emile Senart.
Barth devoted himself for more than forty years to the study of Indian
religions in their historical perspective and to the criticism of works
published in every field of Indology. Bergaigne wrote an epoch-making
work, The Vedic Religion according to the Hymns of the Rig- Veda. This
was followed by other works, of which the Researches on the Samhita
of the Rig-Veda is most noteworthy. He brought about a revolution in
the realm of religious history by his tireless work on the Rig Veda. The
vedic hymns, which had been interpreted as songs of worship dedicated
to the forces of nature, came to reveal through his interpretation an
artificial pedantic religion surcharged with liturgy and rituals. Bergaign®
founded the teaching of Sanskrit at the Sorbonne. Although at os
purely a vedic and Sanskrit scholar, Bergaigne later turned to the study
of Indian civilization and to the history of Indochina. Many insct iption®
in impeccable Sanskrit, frequently elaborated in kavya style, were foun
in Cambodia and on the eastern coast of the Indochinese a
Bergaigne and Barth deciphered and translated many of these. With th
help of such data, a part of the history of Champa was disclosed: $

French scholars preferred to study Indian civilization in its a n

_ perspective, including its phase of foreign expansion, through non-nai
sources, Foucaux, Professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de Franc® ae

_ Leon Féér worked on Buddhist subjects from Sanskrit and Tibet?

656

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

works. The former published the La/itavistara in Tibetan and French, and
the latter translated many texts from Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Mongolian,
and Chinese.

With the increasing interest in the archaeological remains of
Indochina, Indian art also attracted French attention. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century, Langles compiled his comprehensive The
Monuments of Hindustan. Later, Emile Guimet founded, first in Lyons
and later in Paris, a special museum of history of religions, Musée
Guimet, which became a world-renowned museum of Indian and East
Asian art and archaeology.

Since every major Asian country had been in the closest possible
contact with India in the past, an understanding of Indian culture was
essential to appreciate other neighbouring civilizations. So in addition
to their interest in Indian civilization or in Sanskrit, the French need to
evaluate Indochinese society and culture led them back to India, and to
Central Asia. In Khotan, Dutreuil de Rhins bought a manuscript written
on birch bark in Kharoshthi script. It was a Buddhist work, containing a
middle Indian version of the Dharmapada. It was studied and published
by Emile Senart. He published a new edition of Asoka’s inscriptions,
and of those found at Nasik and Karle. He edited the Pali grammar
of Kaccayana and the Mahavastu, and wrote the Essay on the Legend
of Buddha, in which he tried to show how the Buddhists introduced
into the life story of the Buddha many elements taken from the saga of
Vishnu-Mahapurusha.

; The discovery of Dutreuil de Rhin’s manuscript was the first in a series
offinds. Since the end of the nineteenth century, a number of competent
French scholars of Asian history and culture have undertaken historical
Se aton Amongst the first of these were four friends of aoi

“rent ages, Sylvain Lévi, Alfred Foucher, Edouard Chavannes, an
iT Eo hers Sb
inscripti ndology through his studies oa = ee ie iy dates
Stories ae ; of Bodhgaya, and the Chinese se e T a
of Gien egends. However, his work cannot be sep

n Lévi.
ae Sylvain Lévi, a former pupil of Bese sm
Ux to the Chair of Sanskrit at the College de France,

e, succeeded
at the

657

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

age of thirty-one. Earlier he had done field work in India, mainly jy
Nepal, looking for inscriptions and manuscripts, He was devoted to
the study of Hindu-Buddhist literature and texts. He first published
The Indian Theatre and then Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Brahmanas. It
was his findings in Nepal and his collaboration with Chavannes which
finally led Levi to Buddhist studies. Having learned both Tibetan and
Chinese, he was able to correct the Sanskrit texts he rediscovered,
such as Mahayanasutralankara by Asanga, Trinisika and Vimsatika by
Vasubandhu, and Mahakarmavibhanga, by checking them against their
Tibetan and Chinese versions. With the help of the linguist, Antoine
Meillet, Lévi also deciphered the Kuchean language. He found fragments
of a Kuchean poem very similar to the Karmavibhanga, the sculptural
illustrations of which he also later noticed in the famous Buddhist
temple, Borobudur, in Java. Another French scholar, Paul Pelliot, in
1908 discovered many fragments of Indian texts in Central Asia.”

Albert Foucher came to India long before he succeeded Victor Henry
at the Sorbonne. He was a devoted humanist who was greatly attracted to
Sanskrit literature, its grammar, system of philosophy, and archaeology.
It was he who connected the art of Buddhist India, widely known as the
Gandhara School, with that of the Graeco-Roman world. He edited
Maridas Pillai’s French translation of the Bhagavata Purana, and in
association with Finot, was responsible for the foundation of a research
institute, the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient, in Indochina, to study
and preserve Indochinese culture. This institute helped to join Indology
with Sinology. He also founded the French Archaeological Institute at
Kabul, and the Franco-Japanese Mansion at Tokyo.

Many French Indologists, including Jean Przyluski and Jules Bloch,
have worked in these institutions. Przyluski was attracted to Buddhist
studies, linguistics, and ethnology, and wrote many books with the
intention of tracing the remains of Munda, or popular, Toe
non-Aryan origin in Indian documents. Jules Bloch, having first s™ i
in Paris under Sylvain Lévi, Meillet, the famous linguist, and Vinson,

École
the specialist in Tamil studies, came to India as a member of me ae
_ Francaise d’Extreme-Orient to learn modern Indian Togoa
a ; i

with the Indian scholar, R. G. Bhandarkar. In 4 a
n the grammatical structure of Dravidian languages

658

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

Asoka's edicts, he wrote a study of the Gypsies, Les Tsiganes, His work,
Formation de la langue Marathe, contributed greatly to the study of
modern dialects as well as to the rigorous science of linguistics.

The Belgian scholar, Louis de la Vallée Poussin (1869-1938), who
studied with Emile Senart and Sylvain Lévi, contributed three volumes
to the famous Histoire du Monde series between 1924 and 1935. His
volumes form a complete political history of pre-Muslim India and are
outstanding works of scholarship.

The French, even after withdrawing from their Indian territorial
possessions, retained their interest in Indian studies. With the
concurrence of India they have founded a centre at Pondicherry to
continue research on Indian life and culture. Louis Renou, who died
in 1966, was not only the leading French Indologist of his generation,
but the most distinguished in the West. His output was phenomenal,
but he was chiefly a scholar of the Vedas. Amongst his many books and
articles were a Veda bibliography, a Veda index, a study of Indo-Iranian
mythology, a Sanskrit-French dictionary, and a study of Panini, the
grammarian. Jean Filliozat, who has made outstanding contributions
to Indian studies, especially to the history of Indian science, worked for
many years at the Pondicherry institute. Filliozat, a qualified medical
Practitioner and an accomplished linguist, has the rare competence to
study ancient Indian medicine. His work, The Classical Doctrine of Indian
Medicine, must remain a standard text.

Germany, unlike Britain or even France, was not at all politically
connected with India, but undertook Sanskrit studies most enthusi-
astically. German Indologists produced work exceptional both in
quality and quantity, and they soon became the leaders in the study of
prince and literature, as well as Indian ioe ie ea
a a F e English scholars were the first to study ae eae canny
motivated i, aoe lead for gouen PE a Chair of
a a considerations other than ee > a a
ita sity f - a r n yan T that the first Chair of
aes oe onn in 1818, it was not until P attr
YHH oa aree Bs = ae at London,
ambrid eae Oi ob Seo ee first quarter of the

8°, and Edinburgh Universities, and by the first q

659

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

nineteenth century practically every intellectual capital of Europe ha
initiated a full fledged study of Sanskrit.

A contemporary of Jones and Colebrooke, Alexander Hamilton
(1765-1824), who had learned Sanskrit in India, inadvertently introduced
the language to Germany. Returning from India to England in 1802, he
was detained in France when hostilities were suddenly renewed between
England and France. By a remarkable coincidence, the German poet and
philosopher, Friedrich von Schlegel (1772-1829), was also in Paris, By
that time German interest in Indian literature had already been awakened
by the work of the English scholars. Consequently, when Schlegel met
Hamilton in 1803 he quickly took advantage of the opportunity and
began learning Sanskrit.

In 1808 Schlegel published Uber die Sprache und Weisheit der Inder(On
the Language and Wisdom of the Indians), and thus became the founder
of Indian philology in Germany. This work contained the first direct
translation from Sanskrit into German. It gave an account of Indian
mythology, and of the theories of incarnation and the transmigration
of soul, all illustrated by translations from Sanskrit texts. Friedrich
von Schlegel declared that a real history of world literature could be
written only when Asian literature was included in it. However, in
brother, August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845), whose translation
of Shakespeare’s plays is a German classic, became an even more acii
Sanskrit scholar. He had learned Sanskrit under Leonard de Chézy m
France, and led the extensive development of Indology in Germany.
He edited and translated a number of Sanskrit texts and wrote works
on philology. He edited the original text of the Bhagavad Gita, together
with a Latin translation, and paid tribute to its unknown authors: ge
always adore the imprints of their feet.” Schlegel insisted that the critics
methods evolved in classical philology, of which he was an expert, sho A
be applied to Sanskrit texts. He established a Sanskrit press at eae
a time when the printing of Sanskrit was only beginning in India. i
painstaking care he drew the Devanagari types, supervised their En

_and invented important technical improvements for their printing: a
composed his first text, a critical edition of the Bhagavad Gita, with 3
own hands. With the help ofa subscription from Goethe, he then ee i

: ition of the Ramayana, but only the first volume was publish

d

660 |

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

Franz Bopp (1791-1867), who had also studied Sanskrit in Paris
was, unlike the Schlegel brothers, more interested in language than in
jiterature. Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Berlin, he published
On the Conjugational System of the Sanskrit language in Comparison with
that of the Greek, Latin, Persian, and Germanic languages in 1816, thus
laying the foundations for the new science of comparative philology. In
addition, Bopp selected a number of episodes from the Mahabharata,
especially that of Nala and Damayanti, translated them into German
and Latin, and published them in 1819. His Glossarium Sanscritum, an
important complement to this translation, appeared in 1830.

During the initial phase of Sanskrit studies, until about 1830,
European attention was mainly focused on the classical period of
Sanskrit. The vedic literature remained almost unknown except for
Colebrooke’s essay. Little was known of the extensive Buddhist literature.
The Upanishads were better known through Anquétil du Perron’s Latin
translation from the Persian. The Indian linguistic genius, Ram Mohan
Roy, edited the Sanskrit text of several Upanishads and published their
English translation in 1816-1817.

Later, Paul Deussen (1845-1919) reinforced the study of the
Upanishads with his translations and philosophical writings; he also
made a selection of texts from the Mahabharata with philosophical
commentary. Many Indologists reproduced consecutive depictions of
the Mahabharata." The pioneer in this field, however, was Hermann
Jacobi, whose book, Mahabharata-Inhaltsangabe, Index, Concordanz, was
Published in 1903.

The real philological investigation of the Vedas began in 1838 with
the publication of the first eight parts of the Rig Veda in London by a
German scholar, Friedrich Rosen. Vedic literature contains many forms
re became extinct in the later Sanskrit, but which ae i a

in Greek and other Indo-European languages. #or Ins :

Classical Sanskrit has no subjunctive mood unlike most of the older
h in vedic Sanskrit.

n be .
©-European languages, but it is common enoug, eat
S °reover, vedic Sanskrit has a tonic accent unlike the later Sans : it, A
oe to the Greek system. After his premature death, Rosen s wor
as conti
®ntinued by Eugene Burnouf.

One of Burnouf’s students, Rudolph Roth (1821-1895), published his

661

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

work on the history and literature of the Vedas in 1846. In association
with another German scholar, Otto Bohtlingk (1815-1909), Roth
produced the enormous Sanskrit-German dictionary, the Sz Petersburg
Sanskrit Dictionary, commonly known as the St. Petersburg Lexicon
because it was published by the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences
between 1852 and 1875. Comprising almost ten thousand Pages, this is
the most outstanding of all the achievements of German Indology.

‘The most celebrated German Indologist, Friedrich Max Müller (1823-
1900) continued vedic research by bringing out his splendid edition of
the Rig Veda in six volumes between 1849 and 1874, and, from 1875
onwards, by editing the authoritative and annotated translation series,
Sacred Books of the East, in fifty-one volumes, thirty-one of which are
Indian texts. This work laid the beginnings of the study of comparative
religion. It caused a tremendous sensation even in India, where a
cultural renaissance and renewed national consciousness were taking
place. Max Müller’s translations of the Upanishads and the Rig Veda
and other works, which have since been published in a variety of forms
and editions, made Indian knowledge better known and appreciated
everywhere. He guided considerable research in Indology, comparative
religion, and mythology. The essays on mythology are amongst his most
delightful writings.

Max Müller lived during the formative period of modern India. Armed
resistance to the British rule in India had collapsed, having gained its
momentum in 1857, but political opposition to British domination had
become more organized and intensive. Whilst the Indian rebellion
especially the military revolt of 1857, enraged many British thinkers
such as Tennyson and Ruskin, to the point of writing unkindly of India,
Max Müller remained a great friend and admirer, and his name 1$ often
Sanskritized as “Moksa-mula,” meaning the root of salvation. Male!
was the first European scholar to announce that India had a spiritua
message for Europe, and he praised Indian thought and philosophy es
almost lyrical terms: “If I were to look over the whole world to find ou
the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power, and beauty
‘that nature can bestow—in some parts a very paradise on earth—I sho Si
_ point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has a
develoy ‘some of the choicest gifts, has most deeply pondere

E ER

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them
which well deserve the attention even of those who have studied Plato
and Kant—I should point to India...”

Max Müller first came under the influence of German Orientalists,
and later studied in Paris under Burnout. He went to Oxford in 1848
to supervise the printing of his Rig Veda, and spent the rest of his long
working life in England. An eminent classical scholar and a master of
languages, including English, he was blocked from succeeding to the
Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1860 because he was of foreign birth
and his liberal views on theological questions were unacceptable to the
clergy in England. The Chair was given to Sir Monier-Williams, an
important Sanskrit scholar who did a great deal to make Indian culture
known in English-speaking countries. In 1868, however, Max Müller
was appointed to a new Chair of Comparative Philosophy. Miller's
influence on Indian studies has been extensive, deep, and lasting. For
instance, when he pointed out that Alexander is not mentioned in the
entire body of Sanskrit literature, historians felt compelled to revise their
exaggerated assessment of his campaigns in India.”

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Indian texts began to appear
in rapid succession, and knowledge about India was keenly sought. One
of the most important works of this period was Indische Alterthumskunde
by Christian Lassen (1800-1876), a pupil of August Wilhelm von
Schlegel. The work was published in four large volumes between 1843 and
1862. Lassen, a Norwegian who regarded himself as a German, worked
for many years as Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Bonn. His
work, although somewhat obsolete today, is of outstanding merit.

‘The discovery of the vedic hymns also led to the emergence ofa new
science of comparative mythology. Theodor Benfey published in 1859 his
edition of the Indian fable collection, the Pancatantra, which created a

terary revolution. Benfey showed through meticulous research how the
fables of India reached Europe, travelling step by step, through Pahlavi,
«sian, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and the modern languages of Europe,
à a oe even La Fontaine with some se pe
the cl : : enfey's various Sanskrit pa E p it Philology are

classical grammar of Panini, and his History of Sanskrit PoW2"8)

important,

663

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

In 1852, A. Weber published his History of Indian Literature

x 3 / in
German, the first connected historical account of Indian |

iterature, The
work was translated into English and has been printed several Ge

Weber brought out a second edition in 1876 which he updated by
notes to the texts. He also opened up a new branch of Indian study
through his work in 1883-1885 on the sacred writings of the Jains,
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the literature on Indian
studies had grown too vast and unwieldy for an individual scholar to
master. Consequently, the need for an encyclopaedia surveying the work
done in all branches of the subject was felt. Grundriss der indoarischen
Philologic und Altertumskunde (Compendium of Indo-Aryan Philology
and Antiquities) began to appear in 1897 under the general editorship
of the versatile Sanskrit scholar, Georg Bühler (1837-1898), who had
studied under Benfey, and published many works of his own. This was
an attempt by thirty leading scholars from throughout the world to
give an encyclopaedic view of the work done in the various branches of
Indology. The publication was continued under the editorship of other
scholars and was one of the important developments in the field of
Indian studies. Later, in 1900, A. A. Macdonell, a successor of Wilson
at Oxford, published 4 History of Sanskrit Literature and in 1907 M.
Winternitz, Professor of Indology at Prague, brought out 4 History of
Indian Literature in German.
Today almost every library in Germany has a special collection
of books on India and every university has a departmental library of
Indology. Six universities—Bonn, Tübingen, Munich, Göttinger
Marburg, and Hamburg—have Chairs of Sanskrit, and practically every
university provides for the teaching of Sanskrit within its depar tment
of comparative linguistics. Three German universities have their own
magazines on Indology. -
Holland’s interest in India was direct, because of her commercia *?
political involvements in the East Indies, but Indology did not begi? ™
that country until the nineteenth century. During the seventeenth aa
eighteenth centuries, a number of Dutchmen learned modern par
languages, but only one, Herbert de Jager of the University of Leyde i
is known to have been familiar with Sanskrit. The first professor t° reag
Sanskrit was Hamaker at the University of Leyden, who encourag®

adding

aland

E

664

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

the study of comparative linguistics. But the real foundation of Sanskrit
studies was laid by his eminent pupil, Hendrik Kern, whose work evoked
much interest. A Chair of Sanskrit was consequently established at the
University of Leyden in 1865, and was filled by Kern. Before Kern began
his professional career, he had taught in England and India. By his
publications and through his pupils, several of whom became eminent
Indologists, Indian studies made considerable progress in Holland.
Later, Holland produced such scholars as Speyer, Vogel, Gonda, Th.
P. Gabestios, Bosch, and Faddegon. Today Chairs of Sanskrit exist at
Leyden, Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Groningen.

In Italy, also, there developed a keen interest in and systematic study
of Indology. Italian missionaries, merchants, and mariners continuously
visited India. Those who left valuable accounts of their travels included
Marco Polo; Florentine Filippo Sassetti, who made the first suggestion in
his letters of a possible link between Italian and Sanskrit in the sixteenth
century; Nicolo Manucci; Florentine Francesco Carletti; Pietro della
Valle; Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, who wrote Giro del Mondo,
one volume of which is devoted to India; and Roberto De Nobili. Indian
studies in Italy did not begin, on a scientific basis, until the middle of
the nineteenth century. Italian interest in Indian thought was initially
inspired by German romanticism. The father of Italian Indology was
the Piedmontese, Gaspare Gorresio. As soon as Italy achieved political
harmony and the kingdom of Italy was formed in 1870, the first Chair
of Oriental Studies were set up. Since then Italy has produced famous
Indologists from Graziadio Ascoli to Giuseppe Tucci of the present
day.

Even in those small nations of Europe whic i fee
concerned wi : g ancient India spread.
Oe wae eee a of learning, Indology was

; akia, a long tradition TA

$ occupy a place of prominence. Czech scholars were first attracte
ndian studies through the work of a Jesuit missionary, Kar
er who atrived in Goa in 1748 F wees Be es d
5 n uring his fourteen years in a : * E
Linguae B 7 eae wees segera poras Brahmanic Tongue), has
Survived; RE (he Prina f Konkani dialect to have

; this was probably the first grammar of AOD

h were not directly

665

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

been written. Inspired by Prikryl’s works, Josef Dobrovski, a phil

ologist
and historian, learned Sanskrit during the last part of the cig!

nteenth
century and pointed out the similarities between many Indian and Slay

words and forms. In 1812 Joseph Jungmann wrote on Indian prosody and
metre, and nine years later his brother, Antonin Jungmann, published
the first Sanskrit grammar in Czech.

Of the numerous comparative philologists, Joseph Zubaty made
notable contributions to Sanskrit philology and to the history of vedic
literature and classical Indian epic and dramatic literature. He published
his Qualitative Changes in the Final Syllable in Vedic in 1888, and, two
years later, a study of Indian metrics entitled The Construction of Tristubh
and Jagati Verses in the Mahabharata.

Alfred Ludwig (1837-1912), Zubaty’s teacher, and Moriz Winternitz
(1836-1937) were the first scholars who advanced Indian studies from
comparative philology to Indology proper. Ludwig’s philological studies
were important but he is better known for his German translation of the
Rig Veda in six volumes, published in Prague in 1876-1888, and for his
studies of classical Indian literature. Ludwig was the first Czech scholar
to study Dravidian languages."

Winternitz succeeded Ludwig to the Chair of Indology at the
University of Prague and held it for several decades. He wrote the three-
volume History of Indian Literature in German, the first two volumes of
which were translated into English and published in India in 1927-1933.
In addition, he wrote many shorter studies on Indian literature, some of
which were published in book form in Calcutta in 1925 under the title,
Some Problems of Indian Literature.

After World War I, a new Chair of Indology was founded at os
Charles University of Prague, the oldest university in Central Europ i
Its first occupant, Wincerc Lesny (1882-1953) had travelled extensive y
in India, and was a scholar of Indian, as well as of Iranian, languages:
He published a number of books on India, including a monograph r
Rabindranath Tagore, and translated many of Tagore’s works Ta
from Bengali. His work, Buddhismus, analyzing the Buddhism of the P
canon and its development in India and abroad, is yet to be E

from Czech into other languages. Lesny also founded the periodical,
ei) sast and the Indian Society, before World War II.

666

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

In Hungary, Indian studies did not reach such an advanced level as in
some major countries of Europe, but Indian thought made a significant
impact on Hungarian intellectual life, and Hungary has made some
contributions to Indology. One of these is the work of Sir Aurel Stein
(1862-1943), a British citizen of Hungarian origin whose archaeological
surveys and work in Central Asia are classical contributions to the study
of Indian culture abroad. Born in Budapest, he studied in Austria and
Germany, and taught Sanskrit at the University of the Punjab, before
he led Indian archaeological expeditions to the hitherto unexcavated
ruins in Serindia. He bequeathed his valuable library to the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences.

The first Hungarian Orientalist was Alexander Csoma de Körös
(1784-1842) who visited India in 1830 at the invitation of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal, and who died at Darjeeling in 1842 during his
second visit. His work and that of Tivadar Duka (1825-1908) were the
beginnings of Indian studies in Hungary. Some of the scholars whose
contributions to Hungarian Indology are particularly notable are Karoly
Fiolk (1857-1915), who translated several Sanskrit classical texts; Sandor
Kegl (1862-1920) and Josef Schmidt (1868-1933) who made Indian
philosophy accessible to Hungarians; Charles Louis Fabri, whose writings
on Indian art and aesthetics are well known to Indian scholars; Ervin
Baktay (1890-1963); and Ferenc Hopp, who founded the Museum of
East Asiatic Art in Budapest, which is named after him.

Some Rumanian scholars and poets were also fascinated by Indian
culture. G. Coshbuc (1866-1918), called “the singer of the Rumanian
peasantry,” translated the Sakuntala from a German version in 1897, and
compiled a Sanskrit anthology. B. P. Hashdeu studied the problems of
Sanskrit literature or linguistics. His disciple, Lazar Saineanu, weni to
Paris where he studied Sanskrit at the Sorbonne with Abel Bergaigne.
onstanitin Georgian (1850-1904), who had worked with A. Weber at
: erlin, was the first Rumanian Orientalist to make persistent efforts to
ee the study of Sanskrit into his country. ee = i
cee approve of the teaching of Sanskrit; ongin ele sani the
1930 7 ee s Ce P eee ‘o made Sanskrit
and i Amongst many other Rumanian packs i d a literary

ndian culture their intellectual pursuit and forme

667

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

circle (Junimea), the names of Vasile Pogor, Vasile Burla, and Teohari

Antonescu, can be mentioned as more prominent. Antonescw’s important

work on the philosophy of the Upanishads was the first study in Rumania
to deal with such a problem in its entirety.

Information about early Russian awareness of India and Indian
culture is at present insufficient. In the South Russian Steppes, some
Buddhist images of the pre-Mongol period have been found. Indian
fables and stories have long been known in Russia, although it is doubtful
if their origins were known. A Russian traveller, Athanasius Nikitin,
went to India in the fifteenth century but his diary, a valuable source of
information, was unfinished. At the end of the seventeenth century a
Russian merchant, Semen Malinkov, was received by Aurangzeb. A small
colony of Indian traders and artisans was established in Astrakhan about
1615 and some Indian religious men settled in the region and enjoyed
freedom of worship.

‘The first translation of a Sanskrit text was published in Russia in 1787
by N. I. Novikov. This was not a direct translation from Sanskrit but a
Russian version of Wilkins’ translation of the Bhagavad Gila. Later, a
Russian musician, Gerasim Lebedev (1749-1817) who lived in India
from 1785 to 1797 and played a significant role in the renaissance of the
Bengali Theatre, published his Grammar of Pure and Mixed East Indian
Dialects with Dialogues in 1801, and An Impartial Survey of the Systems of
Brahmanical East India in 1805. He also cast the first Devanagari type
by the command of Tsar Alexander I.

An Asian Academy was established at St. Petersburg in 1810, and
Robert Lenz (1808-1836), who learned Sanskrit under Franz Bopp
Berlin, was appointed the first Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative
Philology, but he died at the age of twenty-eight. His work, however, ye
continued by Pave Yakovlevich Petrov, who taught a number of ue
philologists and Indologists, including F. Korsch, F. F. Fortunator an
V. F. Miller and translated into Russian the Sitaharana episode of the
Ramayana with a glossary and a grammatical analysis. idly

Once the process had begun, Sanskrit studies expanded rap! 7
in the receptive atmosphere of Russian intellectual life, and E

_ produced famous Indologists, such as V. P. Vasilyev (1818-1900) a
Minayev (1840-1890). A pupil of Minayev, Sergei Fedorov!

668

af ‘=!

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

Oldenburg (1863-1934), founded in 1897 the Bibliotheca Buddbica, a
series devoted to the publication of Buddhist texts and monographs on
Buddhist subjects. ‘The Russian school of Indology had already produced
the monumental St. Petersburg Lexicon, between 1852 and 1875. Possibly
Oldenburg’s greatest achievement was his archaeological explorations of
Eastern Turkistan, and his participation in the organization of Russian
scientific exploration of Central Asia; Russian explorers were the first to
point out the rich archaeological sites on the edges of the Taklamakan
Desert. Fedor Ippolitovich Stcherbatsky (1886-1941), who studied under
Minayev and Oldenburg in St. Petersburg, Biiehler in Vienna, and Jacobi
in Bonn, published important works on Buddhist thought and edited
numerous Tibetan and Sanskrit texts for the Bibliotheca Buddhica. Since
the end of the last century, Russian interest and work in Indian studies
have become even more comprehensive.

The first direct contact between India and the United States was
commercial, and began in the end of the eighteenth century. By the
middle of the nineteenth century, American trade with India had greatly
increased. Diplomatic and missionary activity followed. American
knowledge of India was at first vague, fragmentary, and indirect, acquired
through the writings of European scholars. Later, however, the impact
of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, and other visiting Indians
was clearly felt.

Since Yale University was founded in 1718 with the help of a cargo
of gifts raised in India by Elihu Yale, who was a governor of Madras, it
Was only appropriate that it was there that Indian studies in the United
States were begun in 1841. Edward Elbridge Salisbury (1814-1901), a
Pupil of Franz Bopp, was appointed the first Professor of Sanskrit. Later,
his Pupil, William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894), who had also studied
with Weber and Roth, fined the Chair with distinction and made the
frst important American contributions to Sanskrit studies,
editions of the Vishnu Purana and the Atharva Veda. = on
‘a ee Hopkins University was next to set T ao eee
Chae na eara ee oen ie aoe
Reader ocel Panman the autos of ; z 5; i appointed to
ie and the editor of the Harvard Oriental eries, Pe

Position, but he moved to Harvard University two ee a

including

669

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

up what was to become an outstanding Department of Sans
several other universities, such as Columbia, California, and Pennsylvania
instituted Chairs of Sanskrit, and America produced many well-known
scholars, such as Washburn Hopkins, Maurice Bloomfield, Franklin
Edgerton, Arthur Ryder, A. U. William Jackson, and W. Norman

Brown. Whilst American scholarship has m

krit. Later,

ade notable contributions of
its own, Indian thought made its impact on the American mind mainly
through European Indology.

Until World War II, American academic interest was primarily
confined to the linguistic and literary study of ancient texts. Now, with
the independence of India and the role of America in world affairs, the
study of India in American universities and colleges has increased and
become phenomenally diversified. Research in Indian history, sociology,
politics, economics, and many other fields is rapidly expanding, and the
recently established American Institute of Indian Studies has given a
new impetus to American Indology. Thousands of Indian students are
studying at American universities—over one thousand Indian scholars
are now teaching there—and countless American scholars, journalists,
artists, and tourists have visited India.

Without further straining the patience of the reader, it is not possible
to mention here the considerable Indological work done in the other
countries of Europe, and the many outstanding contributions made
by scholars not already noted; the works of Sten Konow and Georg
Morgenstierne from Norway; Jarl Carpentier and Helmer Smith from
Sweden; Myles Dillon from Eire; W. S. Majewski, J. Lelewal, D. 4
Boskowsk, and S. Schayer from Poland; Hermann Brunnhofer, Ernst
Leumann, and Jacob Wockernagel from Switzerland; and Fausboll from
Denmark are particularly valuable.”° d

Whilst a good deal of work was thus being done in Europe s :
America, the study of ancient Indian culture was progressing in India
well, through the efforts of both European and Indian scholars. Amongst
the Indians themselves there developed during the nineteenth ies
a class of scholars who were educated in Western learning and te
inspired by the growing spirit of cultural renaissance in India. Of i
the works of R. G. Bhandarkar and Rajendralal Mitra are best kno”

670

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF INDIA

Their tradition gave rise to successive generations of Indian scholars who
now do the vast majority of the work in Indian studies.

‘The initial work of the Asiatic Society of Bengal on written records
was soon to lead attention to archaeological remains. Inscriptions in
long-forgotten alphabets, coins, etc were closely scrutinized. Working
back from current scripts the older languages were deciphered. One
of the most remarkable achievements in this field was James Prinsep’s
(1799-1840) reading of the Brahmi script in 1837. An erudite scholar
skilled in epigraphic techniques, he was able to interpret the edicts of
Asoka, giving India knowledge of her noblest ruler, and placing Indian
archaeology on a secure chronological basis. His death at the age of forty-
one was a grievous blow to Indian studies.”'A colleague of his, Alexander
Cunningham, was an engineer with the British Indian Army and greatly
interested in Indian archaeology. He continued Prinsep’s work, and in
1862 became the first archaeological surveyor of India. Later, his work
was carried forward by a number of archaeologists, prominent amongst
whom were James Burgess, John Marshall, and R. D. Banerji, who

discovered the cities of the Indus civilization in 1922.

671

Chapter VI

WESTERN RESPONSE TO
MODERN INDIA

WHILST EUROPE’S DEBT to Greek literature is generally acknowledged,
and often overemphasized, it is not always easy for modern generations
to imagine the effect Indian ideas have had on European intellectual
and cultural progress. The stimulus of Indian literature was such that
scholars, exemplified by Macdonell, said: “Since the Renaissance there
has been no event of such world-wide significance in the history of culture
as the discovery of Sanskrit literature in the latter part of the eighteenth
century.”! Indeed, the impact of Indian thought on the intellectual life
of renaissant Europe was so powerful that many European writers have
not taken kindly to it. Driven by some strange fear of losing their cultural
identity, they endeavoured to minimize or ignore the influence of Indian
philosophy, and stretch logic to explain intellectual evolution purely in
terms of what they call Western traditions. od
India, however, was only one of the several factors which oun
European thought and life. The entire political, social, and intellectuä
life of Europe at this time was far more active and complex than during
any previous age, and perhaps any subsequent one. France led the Agee
Enlightenment. Germany was rapidly advancing, asserting its ele
prowess in literature and philosophy; America and Russia had begun
make important contributions; and science had scored fresh E
~ These were far-reaching changes, in which the discovery of India
literature and philosophy played a limited but significant role.

672

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Inevitably, European response to Indian ideas differed from country
to country: indeed, from thinker to thinker. Some received Indian
thought more readily and understood it better than others. Others
reacted against it almost instinctively. Whatever the response, favourable
or unfavourable, deep or fragmentary, it was entirely conditioned by the
intellectual climate of Europe and its variations. There was no organized
movement to advocate the adoption of Indian ideas. If there were those
anxious to underline the virtues of Indian literature, they were the
Europeans themselves, acting individually. Seldom were Indian doctrines
adopted wholesale—to expect otherwise would be to deny the existence
of a powerful indigenous tradition and the intellectual independence of
the receiver. Some found in Indian thought reinforcement of their own
ideas; others an escape or diversion from their own tradition.

Indian thought and literature had its finest European reception
in Germany. In fact, Indology became largely a province of German
scholarship, stimulated entirely by academic considerations, as
Germany, unlike Britain and France, had no political ties with India
or her neighbours. Although Abraham Roger's work, The Open Door to
Hidden Heathendom, a German translation of two hundred maxims of
Bhartrihari, appeared in 1663, it made little impact. Not until the end
of the eighteenth century did the Germans come to know some of the
famous works of Indian literature.

Europe took Sakuntala to heart, and in Germany the popularity of
this work ensured that later translations would be welcomed. The fg
German to recognize the beauty of Sakuntala was the poet and eae
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803). Although not familia with India
or its languages, he had already given a somewhat idealized picture of
the Indian people in his chief work, Ideen Zur Philosophie der Menschheit
( Ideas on a Philosophy of the History of Mankind), in 1787. Arog S

im, mankind’s origin was to be traced to India, where the human ce
Ea es of wisdom and virtue with a pe se ee
in our = ich has—frankly spoken—nothin gne > d the Hindus,

philosophical, cold European world.” He regarde

cause of their ethical teachings, as the most gentle and peaceful people
on earth. H; SSS aie Romantic movement,

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the teachings of reincarnation established between all forms of life
opened a new field to Herder and his contemporaries. Herder’s Thoughts
of Some Brahmins (1792), which contains a selection of gnomic stanzas
in free translations, gathered from Bhartrihari, the Hitopadesa and the
Bhagavad Gita, expressed these ideals. When George Förster sent him
his German translation of the English version of the Sakuntala in 1791,
Herder responded: “I cannot easily find a product of the human mind
more pleasant than this ... a real blossom of the Orient, and the first,
most beautiful of its kind! ... Something like that, of course, appears once
every two thousand years.” He published a detailed study and analysis
of Sakuntala, claiming that this work disproved the popular belief that
drama was the exclusive invention of the ancient Greeks.

Herder’s letters, published under the title, The Oriental Drama,
claim that Kalidasa’s masterpiece contains a perfection unique in world
literature both in poetic substance and the characterization of the
heroine. Herder hurriedly passed on his discovery of the Indian drama
to his friend, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whose own
enthusiasm for this play was no less exuberant. He wrote in 1792:

Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms and the fruits
of its decline
And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured,
feasted, fed,
Wouldst thou the earth, and heaven itself in one sole name
combine)
I name thee, O Sakuntala! and all at once is said.”

Goethe expressed this admiration for Sakuntala more than one
Nearly forty years later, in 1830 when de Chézy sent him his edition
of the original with his French translation, he wrote to the main
expressing his deep gratitude: “The first time I came across y
inexhaustible work it aroused such enthusiasm in me and so held me H
T could not stop studying it. I even felt impelled to make the impos“! ee
attempt to bring it in some form to the German stage. These effo
were fruitless but they made me so thoroughly acquainted with this ee
valuable work, it represented such an epoch in my life, I so absorbe Áa
that for thirty years I did not look at either the English or the Germ

Con oe ase “674

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

version -- It is only now that I understand the enormous impression
that work made on me at an earlier age.” Goethe goes on to point out
the beauties of the work, saying that in it the poet appears in his highest
function, as the representative of the most natural state, of the most
refined form of life, of the purest moral striving, of the worthiest majesty
and the most solemn contemplation of God; at the same time he is lord
and master of his creation to so great an extent that he may venture vulgar
and ludicrous contrasts which yet must be regarded as necessary links
of the whole organization. No wonder he modelled the prologue of his
Faust (1797) on the prologue to Sakuntala. The jester in the prologue of
Faust is reminiscent of the vidusaka in the Indian drama, a parallel first
noticed by Heinrich Heme.

Goethe’s friend, Schiller, who otherwise took little interest in Indian
literature, was also moved to enthusiastic praise of Sakuntala, which he
found in some respects unparalleled in the classical literature of Greece
and Rome. He published part of the Sakuntala in Thalia, and in a letter
to Wilhelm Humboldt he wrote that “in the whole of Greek antiquity
there is no poetical representation of beautiful love which approaches
Sakuntala even afar.”

Goethe also admired other Indian poems, such as Jayadeva’s Gita
Govinda and Kalidasa’s Meghaduta which he read in Wilson’s English
translation in 1817 and welcomed as “a great treasure.” Goethe’s second
Indian ballad, “Der Paria” (1824), was his best. The plot for “Der Paria”
comes from the work of the French traveller, Sonnerat (Vayage aux Indes
1783), who had returned to Europe in 1782 after seven years in India.
Goethe’s first Indian ballad, “Der Gotund die Bajadere,” published in
1797, was also based on Sonnerat.
ae Herder and Goethe shared fe es eo ne
eee toward India were very aie oe an
ae X = dand moralizing. The SS T a
ine treasure of Indian gnomic and di ae P Eee
S Herder admired India, as did ee E

ne none P

Co exploitation of India. take

mae: me the other hand, reacted to Indian ™ :
; ough he was delighted by the harmonion:

ature as a poet and
beauty and lyrical

675

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

intensity of the epics and kavya, he did not care for the Hitopadesa ang
philosophy, and he took no interest in Indian mythology and sculpture
He was particularly interested in poetry that expressed human feclings
and sentiments in a simple and natural way. Indian sculpture, with ie
variety and abundance of form, offended his classical ideal of unified
beauty. His admiration for India was strong and deep, but it could not
compare with his appreciation for Greece. He was fascinated by India,
but he understood Greece. Consequently Goethe did not actively
participate in the expansion of Indian studies and did not learn Sanskrit,
although in the Goethe Archives there are some papers on which the
poet tried the Devanagari script. Extreme attraction unaccompanied
by proper intellectual understanding was bound to unnerve a thinking,
sensitive scholar, such as Goethe. He expressed this feeling to his
friend Humboldt in 1826: “I have by no means an aversion to things
Indian, but I am afraid of them, for they draw my imagination into the
formless and the diffuse against which I have to guard myself more than
ever before.” However, he consistently acknowledged the tremendous
stimulus of Indian thought on Western civilization, and followed the
work of German Indologists such as the Schlegel brothers and Bopp
with interest and approval.

Inspired by Herder’s idealist concepts there developed a belief that the
highest form of romantic poetry could be found only in India. The go
reason which made Goethe hesitant gave the Romantics a predilection
for India. Consequently, they did not content themselves with glorifying
it in poetry alone; they laid the foundation for a real science of India.

Until the end of the eighteenth century, French was the language 2
the German élite and, together with Latin, the language of ae
During the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, Germany a
heavily. After the war, educated Germans became more aware es
own language and heritage, and took an increasing pride in it. Att
psychological moment Indian literature appeared in Germany; @ certa!
undoubted cultural and historical affinity between India and con
probably assumed greater imaginary proportions than it would have
any other time. formed
Shakespeare on the one hand, and Indian literature on the other, t0 ss
the main inspiration of the German Romantic movement. Both we

f

676

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

introduced into Germany at about the same time and by the same persons,
Friedrich and August Wilhelm von Schlegel. The Romantics found in
India that dynamic and synthetic approach to life which they felt was
Jacking in the formalism and artificiality of the early European Romane
movement, and sought to substitute aesthetic standards for utilitarian ones.

The religions of India also fascinated the Romantics of Germany;
throughout the nineteenth century Western religious criticism was
inspired by the discovery of Indian polytheism. “If one considers,”
comments Schlegel, “the superior conception which is at the basis of
the truly universal Indian culture and which, itself divine, knows how to
embrace in its universality everything that is divine without distinction,
then, what we in Europe call religion or what we used to call such, no
longer seems to deserve that name. And one would like to advise everyone
who wants to see religion, he should, just as one goes to Italy to study
art, go to India for that purpose where he may be certain to find at least
fragments for which he will surely look in vain in Europe.”

Amongst those men of letters who took an enthusiastic interest in
Indian literature was the versatile Prussian minister of education, Wilhelm
von Humboldt (1767-1835), a brilliant linguist and the founder of the
science of general linguistics. He began to learn Sanskrit in 1821 and was
greatly moved by Schlegel’s edition of the Bhagavad Gita, on which he
published an extensive study and which he described as “the deepest and
loftiest thing the world has to show.” He declared that he was grateful
to God for granting him a life so long that he could read the Gita.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was also attracted by Indian
thought, as is clearly attested by numerous passages and notes referring
to Indian ideas and texts found in the Beethoven paper: He was first
introduced to Indian literature by the Austrian Orientalist, Hammer-
Purgstal, who founded a periodical for the dissemination of eer
Sie pe yw ey rh
in Giese Seren ee rae ie Sy that have been

ea : The fragments of Jade Beat artly translations and
Partly ad os Peetro ee ee avad Gita. It is not
certain E pees ore eee se sl t a selected these
a cethoven himself or his Orientais
Or him.

677

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The German poet, Friedrich Riickert (1788-1866), Professor of
Oriental Languages at the University of Erlangen from 1827 t
produced, under the inspiration of August Wilhelm van Schlegel
numerous skilful translations from Sanskrit. His published translations
from Indian classical poetry made Indian lyrics and poems widely popular
in Germany amongst his translations are Nalopakhyana, the Amarusataka,
the Raghuvamsa, and the Gita Govinda, which lost nothing ofits beauty,
colour, and atmosphere in Rückert’s German version. The Indian poem
is such a complex work from the viewpoint of rhyme, alliteration, and
allusion that Rückert’s version represents a brilliant accomplishment.
Of all the German poets, it was he who best understood the character
of Indian poetry.*

o 184],

Novalis (1772-1801), one of Germany's greatest Romantic poets,
wrote in his essay, Christendom in Europe, that poetry, pure and colourful
like a beautiful India, stood opposed to the cold and deadening mountains
of philistine reason. For him Sanskrit was the most mysterious linguistic
symbol of any human expression; Sanskrit took him back to the “original
people” who had been forgotten. However, in spite of his emotional
enthusiasm for India, Novalis did not really understand Indian thought.
Unlike those Indians who believe the objective world is an illusion,
Novalis sought to perfect this world. Similarly, when E. T. A. Hoffmann
(1776-1822) attempted to create Indian characters in some of his stories
they were magicians who although traditionally associated with India,
were not really representative. :

Schelling also accorded India an important position in his Philosophy gf
Mythology. He was a great admirer of ancient Indian literature, especially
the Upanishads, which he regarded, like Schopenhauer, to be the genuine
wisdom of Indians and of mankind. ‘

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), a late Romantic lyric poet, oC
influence was enormous not only in Germany but in most countries ?
the Western world, describes the India of his imagination: “.. 1 T

glass I saw the dear motherland, the blue and sacred Ganges, the etern? i
shining Himalayas, the gigantic forests of Banyan trees on DE
shadowy paths quietly walk wise elephants and white pilgrims---
poem, “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges,”

678

J acobi, Kant’s Aesthetics had been preceded byl

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Am Ganges duftet’s and leuchtet’s
Und Riesenbaume bliihn,

Und schöne, stille Menschen

Vor Lotosblumen knien.

created a picture of India widely familiar in Germany." Heine’s
acquaintance with Indian thought, acquired in Bonn under Schlegel and
Bopp; remained important to him throughout his life. His approach to
Indian works was intimate and sensitive, but it did not lead to uncritical
enthusiasm for them. He did not care for the story of the rivalry between
Vasistha and Visvamitra, in which he saw a parallel with the investiture
contest in mediaeval Europe. However, he had a particular feeling for
Indian scenery, as is revealed by his verses in his famous Buck der Lieder
(Book of Songs). He remarked that if the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the
English had carried away ships laden with Indian treasures, Germany
would do likewise, but hers would be treasures of spiritual knowledge.

Although Gutzkow titled his novel Mahaguru (1832), he shows no
evidence of real knowledge of Indian thought. F. Hebbel’s attention was
drawn to India by Ad. Holtzmann’s Indian Sagas. In 1863, he wrote the
story of King Sibi who by sacrificing his own life saved a dove from a
hawk, and his poem, “The Brahmans,” gives a moving expression of the
Indian concept of the equality of all living beings.

Immanuel Kant (1712-1804) was apparently the first important
German philosopher to have some acquaintance with Indian philosophy.
Kant’s differentiation between the physical world as seen in space and time
and the unknowable thing in itself beyond these concepts, is very similar
to the doctrine of Maya. There are certain parallels between Kantian
thought and Buddhist philosophy. Like the Buddha, Kant declared a

PA
number of questions unsolvable, such as “Has the world a beginning ©

not?” “Ts it finit ” has shown that Kant's doctrine
nite or eternal?” Stcherbatsky Hindu philosophy,

of ee : F
4 = categorical imperative has its counterpart in ie
nd has pointed out similarities between Kantian thought an

ding to Hermann

Buddhist thinkers like Chandrakirti. Moreover acco F
a dian writers on poetics.

: these are important parallels and strongly indicative of Kant's

amiliarity with Indian philosophy. But, considering that Sanskrit studies

679

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

were only beginning to emerge in Europe, and Europe knew very litt!
ae : : : : c
of Indian philosophy at the time, it seems unlikely that K

des ant had any
direct knowledge of Indian thought. However, tH

ne possibility of his

acquaintance, as distinct from knowledge, with Indian ideas through
earlier Western writings and contemporary travel accounts cannot be
ruled out. In his lectures at the Konigberg University in East Prussia
from 1756 to 1796, he talked about the physiography of India and the
customs and manners of the people, and it seems likely that an intellectual
of his genius would have gathered other information about India and
reflected upon it with utmost care and competence. His observations
about Buddhism in Asia and about Hindus appear to endorse the view
that he had extensive and accurate knowledge of Indian thought. He said
the Hindus were gentle and tolerant of other religions and nations. He
was very much impressed by the Hindu doctrine of transm igration, which
corresponded in some respects to his own teaching about the destiny of
the soul after death. Similarly, Kant’s successor, Johann Gottlieb Fichte
(1762-1814), includes in his Anweisung Zu einem selingen Leben (Hints
Jor a Blessed Life) numerous passages which approximate the Advaita
doctrine.

Whilst Kant and Fichte were not familiar with original Sanskrit
texts, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) knew them, at least in some
measure, and openly acknowledged his debt to Indian systems in Dre
Welt als Wille und Vorstcllung (The World as Will and Idea): “I acknowledge
that I owe the best part of my development, beside the impression of the
outward world, to the works of Kant and to the holy scriptures of the
Hindus and Plato.” He believed that if “..the reader has also oe
and assimilated the sacred primitive Indian wisdom, then is he best of a
prepared to hear what I have to say to him.”™ Schopenhauer, wae : >
unusually free from nationalism, and who has been called the philosop n
of disillusion and profound pessimism, was introduced to Indian moe
in 1813 by one of Goethe’s friends, the Orientalist Friedrich u
From then on, Schopenhauer never lost interest. In 1818, he a ;
his most important work, Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, 10 ia À
he put forward the doctrines of pessimism and the subjectivity ofwi 3)

: knowledge. Although his university career had come to an abrupt €” 7
this time, he continued to work on his doctoral thesis privately. He

680

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

whatever he could lay his hands on at the Weimar Library concerning
Indian thought. Of these, Anquetil du Perron’s translation of the
Upanishads was his chief source of inforrnation. Schopenhauer, although
working with an imperfect translation, was extremely enthusiastic about
the Upanishads’ philosophy and declared them to be “the production of
the highest human wisdom.” For him no study was so elevating as that of
the Upanishads: “Tt has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of
my death.” A few years later when he became acquainted with Buddhism,
he regarded it as more profound than Christianity. He did not think that
Christianity could ever displace Buddhism in the East: “It is just as if we
fred a bullet against a cliff.” On the contrary, he thought that Indian
philosophy would profoundly alter European knowledge and thought:
“The influence of Sanskrit literature will penetrate no less deeply than
did the revival of Greek letters in the fifteenth century.” Schopenhauer,
mainly influenced by the discovery of upanishadic thought, has been
called the first apostle of Buddhism in Germany. He was so impressed by
Buddhism that he claimed fundamental identity of his philosophy with
the teachings of Buddhism, kept a bronze of the Buddha in his study,
and occasionally referred to himself and his followers as “we Buddhists.”
But there are important differences between his philosophy and Indian
thought, whether Buddhist or vedantic.

Schopenhauer regarded the Hindus as deeper thinkers than Europeans
because their interpretation of the world was internal and intuitive, not
external and intellectual. For intuition unites everything; the intellect
divides everything. The Hindus saw that the “J” is a delusion, that the
individual is merely phenomenal, and that the only reality is the Infinite
One “That art Thou.”

Another German philosopher, Karl Christian Friedrich Kee
(1781-1 832) was even more strongly influenced by Indian h ;
$E pasa he en partea aa M l Eea er
Bu Higa rheiten der Wissenschaften (1829), althoug

Paul a Jainism, and the Carvakas. se ancholano!

eussen (1845-1919), a rare combination

d
“topean philosophy as well as of Indology, W35 also greatly attracte

Y the Vedanta philosophy. Works on the Vedanta philosophy and his

translation of the Vedanta Sutras Were published in 1883 and in 1887

681

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

respectively. By translating the original texts of the Up

anishads into
German and commenting upon them he increased

the understanding of
Indian philosophy amongst European thinkers. He called the Vedanta

system one of the greatest achievements of humanity in the search for
eternal truth.

Not all German philosophers were fascinated by Indian thought. Once
Europe had recovered from the ravages of the Napoleonic Wars and
Indian culture lost its novelty, European intellectuals began to analyze
Indian civilization, even if they had no familiarity with original texts.
A typical example was Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831),
a contemporary of Schopenhauer, who, in reaction to the undiluted
romanticism towards India, gave a full chapter to India in his Philosophy
of World History (1822-1823), and drew some depressing conclusions.
With his stress on reason, he criticized the Romantics for idolizing India.
He considered the prevailing degenerate condition of Indian society as
its natural condition, and maintained it was a society condemned by
its own inability to rejuvenate itself. Hegel not only applied erroneous
standards but relied on undependable sources—the writings of British
administrators and Abbé Dubois’ book. How ill-informed Hegel was of
things Eastern can best be seen in the brief attempt he makes in his book
to define Buddhism. “There is a great dispute going on,” he says, “which
of the two religions (Buddhism and Hinduism) is older and simpler, for
both there are reasons, but one cannot discern it clearly. The Buddhistic
religion is simpler, but this may be due either to the fact that it is older,
or that it is the result of a Reformation. Probably, however, Buddhism
is the older of the two.”®

Yet it is interesting to notice a likeness between Hegel’s fa i
“dialectical movement,” that every idea and every situation in the ws
leads irresistibly to its opposite and then unites with it to form å p
whole, and the Buddhist concept of the “golden mean.” Hegel a
refers to Indian predecessors of his logic of contradictions. Also, hisvi >
that man reaches his full stature only through suffering is quite close
the Buddha’s declaration that life is dukkha. msi
-Whilst Hegel reacted against Romanticism and ae

_ Schopenhauer’s enthusiasm for Indian thought, Friedrich D z
(1844-1900) protested as much against Schopenhauer’s philosop y

mous

682

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

against Deussen’s interpretation of the Vedanta. Nietzsche, however, was
deeply influenced by Schopenhauer in his youth, and regarded himself
as his successor, although superior to him in some ways. He found in
The World as Will and Idea “a mirror in which | espied the world, life,
and my own nature depicted with frightful grandeur.” Although he later
denounced pessimism as decadent, he remained an unhappy man and
under the permanent influence of Schopenhauer’s thought. Nietzsche
was very appreciative of the Upanishads and, indeed, contemptuous of

those Europeans who, devoid of intellectual discernment, wanted to
convert and “civilize” the Brahmans. When Paul Deussen told him his
| plan of translating ancient Hindu texts and expounding their wisdom,
he expressed great enthusiasm saying that Indian philosophy was the one
parallel to their own European philosophy. In Thus Spake Zarathustra
(1883-1891), the most revealing and personal of all his writings,
Nietzsche propounded his central doctrine, the gospel of the superman,
which is his chief legacy to the world. Passionately individualistic he was
abeliever in the hero. He found in the Manusmriti one of the sources
of his own philosophy of superman. He so highly esteemed the Hindu
text that he declared all other ethical codes to be imitations and even
caricatures of this. He saw the supremacy of the Indian Brahmans as the
implicit obedience of the herd to the religious and moral command of the
“ruling” caste. Nietzsche was not a nationalist and showed no excessive
admiration for Germany; he certainly was not anti-Semitic. He wanted
an international ruling race, a vast aristocracy of artist-tyrants. Seldom in
Western thought is the difference between man as he now is and man as
he might become more emphatically pronounced than by Nietzsche.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, interest was directed
‘owards India as a whole, but in the second half of the century, Ganr
ss we dr su angh a eh
(bag cation of Burnoufs Introduction à l'histoire au OO" fees
) and Koppen’s Buddhismus (1857-1859). Even Nietzsche;

Nad moved away from Schopenhauer and Wagner, included in his book,

“Valuation of All Values, a hymn of praise to Buddhism which he found
Uundred times more realistic than Christ's Nativity ed by

ihard Wagner (1813-1883) was so profoundly a se
dhism as propagated by Schopenhauer and his followers

683

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

confessed he had involuntarily become a Buddhist. He was fascinated

by the doctrine of salvation and the ethics of compassion, before which
every other dogma appeared to be small and narrow. In his play, The
Victors, Wagner uses a story from Burnouf’s book about a chandala
(untouchable) female, Prakriti, who was accepted into the monastic order
by the Buddha to enable her to find fulfilment in her love for Ananda who
had also become a monk, and to make amends for her past sins. Prakriti
and Ananda were later transformed into Kundry and Parsifal in his last
opera, Parsifal. The flowergirls (which Wagner took from Lambrecht’s
Alexander Song) and Kingsor’s lance, which hangs above Parsifal’s head,
have their origins in the story about the Buddha’s temptation through
Mara. In Gérterdimmerung (Twilight of the Gods), Wahnheim (the abode
of illusion) and Wunschheim (the abode of desire), for which the man,
delivered from the necessity of having to be born again, strives, are
typically Indian concepts. Countless borrowings from India are found
in Wagner's work.

In 1881 Hermann Oldenberg (1854-1920) published his brilliant
study, Buddha-His Life, Teachings and Community, which added greatly to
Buddhism’s popularity in Germany. Oldenberg also edited and translated
the Dipavamsa and the Vinaya Pitaka. The abundance of new material
and the inherent atheism of original Buddhism inspired some German
poets of the following decades.

J. V. Widmann created an historically inaccurate picture of the Buädha
in his epic, Buddha, as the Master who urged pantheism and atheism
so that “a new golden age” could be achieved. Karl Bleibtreu’s dramas,
Karma (1901) and Saviour (1903), attempted to ease the entrance of
Buddhism into Europe, but again it was interpreted inaccurately. The
most complete treatment of the Buddha was achieved by Karl Gjellerup
in Pilgrim Kamanita (1903). He tried to convey some of the mog
of Buddhism, and showed much knowledge of Indian customs an
Hinduism.

Whilst a general feeling of weariness towards all matters of
world encouraged the influx of Eastern, especially Buddhist, ideas i
the beginning of the twentieth century, this impact was considera y
- increased in the years following because of the intellectual e

_ generated by World War I. Buddhism in Germany was encouraged PY

the

684

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

the poetry of P. Dahlke and Hans Much. A particularly powerful poetic
treatment of the Buddha legend was achieved by Albrecht Schaffer in
The Gem in the Lotus (1923) which was partly inspired by Sir Edwin
Arnold’s The Light of Asia. Werfel’s play, The Mirror Man, appeared in
1920. The hero of this play leaves an Indian monastery and through the
«mirror man” (the manifestation of illusion) he gradually overcomes
maya (illusion) and realizes that dissociation from one’s own existence
is the highest possible aim.

Most poets at that time no longer believed in the superiority of
Christianity. In Josef Winckler’s comedy, Labyrinth of God or the Comedy
of Chaos (1922), the Buddha has only a smile for the twelve Apostles
who want to convince him that his time has ended. The hero of Stefan
Zweig’s The Eyes of the Eternal Brother (1921), the Indian Virata, attempts
to lead a life without guilt. He moves down socially from one step to
the other and finally realizes that one should strive to subject one’s will
but not attempt to live without guilt. The hero in Alfred Doblin’s epic,
Manas (1927), is haunted by the question of where the enemies he has
slain in battle will continue to suffer. He therefore goes to the land of
the dead in the Himalayas, where he witnesses such terrible things that
he suffers a breakdown and dies. His wife who has followed him brings
him back to life. The hero then overcomes gods and demons; he no longer
rejects the world but worships the forces of nature. Doblin’s descriptions
of visions belonging to Siva’s world show his familiarity with Indian
teligious literature.

Hermann Keyserling (1880-1946), who found a strong affinity

“ween Christianity and Buddhism, was much impressed by the
aes profundity of India. He used Indian thought to measure

Uropean standards of conduct and morality. The influence of Keyserling
on the European intelligentsia after World War I, especially in Germany,
Was deep but short-lived. Germany, shattered from the disastrous war,

ad returned its attention towards India for solace and new inspiration,
4S is indicated by the publication of innumerable novels and poems with
à Predominantly Asian background. -
f ‘tmann Hesse, awarded the Knobel Prize for literature in 1946,
au in Indian thought an answer to his yearning for deliverance from

80,” and from the tyrannical dictates of temporality. Indian thought

685

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

offered the most radical possibility of undoing the curse of individuation
of annihilating the “idiotic one-after-the-other” by the postulation Sky
eternal simultaneity of nirvana. The positive attitude of the Bhagavad
Gita also appealed to Hesse. Yoga and maya are the background to the
events portrayed in the Glasperlenspiel (The Game of Glass Beads). Hesse
himself claimed that Yoga had an invaluable effect upon him as a means
of improving his powers of concentration. The threefold sequence of
sensual love, wisdom, and self-denial experienced by the poet Bhartrihari
is interpreted by Hesse as the result of humble and wise humanity. In
Journey to the Orient, Hesse, whose mother was born in Malabar, says of
India that it was “not’ only a country and something geographical, but the
home and the youth of the soul, the everywhere and nowhere, the oneness
of all times.” It is significant that Hesse, although a Christian, repeatedly
substituted the upanishadic sat ¢vamasi, literally “love your neighbour for
he is yourself,” for Christ’s command, “love thy neighbour as thyself.” In
Siddhartha (1922) he tried to reconcile Christian and Indian piety.
Other prominent German writers, such as Paul Dahlke (1865-1928),
H. Much, Josef Winckler, Albrecht Schaffer, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig,
Hermann Kasack , Gustav Meyrink, and Thomas Mann, drew upon
Indian materials. Thomas Mann (1875-1955) gave a new interpretation
to an Indian story from the Vatalapancavimsati in The Transposed
Heads, which Goethe had previously used in his poem, “Der Paria.

FRENCH INTEREST IN Indology is also reflected in their literature,
especially during the Romantic period. In common with many of his
contemporaries, Francois René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848), whe
deeply influenced the Romantic movement in France, was an enthusiastic
admirer of Sakuntala. He had lived in England as a refugee fron
Napoleonic France between 1793 and 1800, when Sir William Jones
translations of Sanskrit works were published.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) imitated an Upanishad in his poc™
“Suprématie” (1870). He gathered his information from G. Uae
Les Livres Sacrés de ? Orient. Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), W A
did for French poetry what Chateaubriand did for French pros¢, ee 7
about Sanskrit epics, drama, and poetry in his Cours jamilier de Litérati

in 1861.

686

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Jean-Jacques Ampére (1800-1864), a friend of Hugo, is reputed
to have said that during the Renaissance Greek works were given the
attention they deserved, but in his day Indian works would be studied and
another Renaissance would be witnessed. Louis Revel went a long step
farther when he remarked that if Greek culture had influenced Western
civilization, the ancient Greeks themselves were “the sons of Hindu
thought.” Joseph Mery (1798-1865), who wrote satirical poems on the
French Restoration, could recite the works of Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti
from memory.

In 1825 Philaré le Charles (1798-1873), who did much to familiarize
his readers with the literature of foreign countries, wrote The Bride
of Banaras and Indian Nights. Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) wrote the
poem, “Savitri,” which is a short piece but is indicative that the French
writers had an accurate knowledge of Indian literature. Verlaine became
keenly interested in Hindu mythology during his high school days. His
enthusiasm was such that he said, “Par Indra! que c’est beau, et comme
ca vous dégotte la Bible, Evangile et toute la dégueulade des Pères de
l'Eglise.” (By Indra! how beautiful this is and how much better than the
Bible, the Gospel and all the words of the Fathers of the Church.)

Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890), who worked in French India as a
government official and was at one time President of the Court in
Chandranagar , translated numerous vedic hymns, the Manusmriti, and
the Tamil work, Kural. His masterpiece, La Bible dans l'Inde, stirred
ieee controversy. He praised the Vedas in his Sons of God, and

sae e Hindu revelation, which proclaims the slow and gradual
ce no of worlds, is of all revelations the only one whose ideas are in
piete harmony with modern science.” Anatole France (1844-1924)

Saw į 5
= i the Buddha “the best adviser and sweetest comforter of suffering
kind,”

oe SPONSE To Indian culture in the eighteenth century a
through y by the ostentatious “nabobs,” who amassed great we
nea ae and deceit. The nabobs raised the Be o
€ old- ay seats and made themselves otherwise objectiona e to
ma tablished aristocratic society into which they intruded with

e :
T outlandish ways.”!4 The image of the epic greatness of India was

687

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

thus tinctured by the money-making vulgarity of these Englishmen,
Consequently, the first reaction of the English was against their own
people who were spoiling the good name of Britain in the East
this period a large number of books were published dealing satirically
with the English administration in India: for example, Mackenzie’s Te
Lounger (1787), Samuel Foote’s The Nabob (1772), Harley House (1789)
and a number of passages in Cowper's poems.

Later, English administration became firm and settled and lost some
of its earlier unpopularity, and Indian philosophy and literature came to
be known in England. Even before Sir Charles Wilkins translated the
Gita, or Halhead published Sanskrit Grammar (1778), Alexander Dow
had published an essay on Hinduism entitled 4 Dissertation Concerning
the Customs, Manners, Language, Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus
(1768). The first European scholar to produce a real dissertation on
Sanskrit learning, he pointed out the vast quantities of Sanskrit literature
in existence, plus the fact that the history of the Hindus was older than
that of any other people.

Jones had come to India, unlike most of his contemporaries, not to
amass a fortune or to seek adventure, but to study Sanskrit and Indian
culture in order to transmit Indian learning to the West. Already a master
of Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew, he had high regard for
Western knowledge which had culminated in British achievements.
Whilst British culture continued to advance, he believed, because of
the free institutions of the West, the Eastern tradition of despotism
caused cultural stagnation in Asia. Yet he had great esteem for Indian
civilization. He was not a romantic admirer of India but, in fact, 5
conservative commentator. In assessing Indian heritage he employe
his own criteria and Western standard. His initial conclusion was that
Europe excelled in the realm of reason; India, in that of reflection. But, 5
he delved deeper into Indian literature, he modified his earlier opinor A
admit the impressive Indian accomplishments in the natural Se As
1794, the last year of his life, he declared that “...without cee o
the ‘never fading laurels of Newton,’ the whole of Newton’s theo 7
and part of his philosophy were to be found in the Vedas and a y
Indian works.” His opinion of Indian philosophy was a ie :
high. “One correct version of any celebrated Hindu book woul

; During

)

688

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

greater value than all the dissertations or essays that could be composed

rct?
on the same subject.
Jones’ evaluation of Indian thought attracted the attention of

contemporary British scholars and writers of diverse interests, such as
Gibbon, Byron, and George Borrow, who acknowledge their debt to
Jones’ Works and the Life. His Hymn to Narayana, in which he described
the process of creation, inspired Shelley’s “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.”
Southey and Moore often cite from Jones’ writings, and E. Koeppel has
recently illustrated that Shelley and Tennyson borrowed from Jones in
their Queen Mab and Locksley Hall.

William Robertson, Principal of the College of Edinburgh and a
well-known historian, published his book, An Historical Disquisition
Concerning Ancient India (1791), describing the knowledge ancient
Greeks and Romans had of India, her progress, and trade activities
prior to the discovery of the direct sea route between India and Europe.
Robertson based his assessment of Indian works on the existing literature,
supplemented by his frequent conversations with high British officials
in India, whose names he, for reasons of confidence, did not specify. He
found both merits and defects in Indian thought and literature.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, whilst Britain had gained
India and Canada, she had lost America. Her industrial revolution was
Well under way and Britain was emerging as a new type of nation-state
combining an industrial capitalist society with an imperialist democratic
§°vernment. The newly gained prosperity and security from foreign
agression, and the pride of possessing a vast colonial empire, produced a
“nse of power—a national feeling of implicit faith in her own historical
: aoe ne Potea institutions—which was aes Lees

ae “| ently, in racial arrogance. ‘These changes 1m yo SS 4
T n's material and intellectual life. It was during this formative penio
3 Words of capital importance in the English language and way of life
G oe and which illustrate the changing patterns in culture and ways
; core such as industry, democracy, class, art, and culture, came to
with new meanings. A
in ee the appearance of William Blake’s Song of- m

Ste ms first revealed his mystical inclination, aug Ae = Bots

tt in 1832, the English literary tradition changed its co

689

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Romantic period, in essence, aimed at liberating human Personality
the fetters of social conventions. Whilst English Romanticism |
provided its own momentum, it was deeply influenced by Germany in the
beginning of the nineteenth century, and India played a significant part,
either directly or through the medium of Germany or Neoplatonism,

William Blake’s (1757-1827) belief that human life is a manifestation
of eternal being has an upanishadic ring. His idea, quite different from the
prevalent one in England, that soul was the true reality and its corporal
form a passing shadow, an encumbrance, and his belief that the human
was divine, are reminiscent of Indian monism. He declared Jesus Christ
“was the only God—and so am I and so are you.” He even regarded the
beasts as “beings, the Living ones.”

Blake’s deep concern and preoccupation with fundamental questions
of life, his emphasis on complete harmony between art, moral problems,
and beliefs, his conviction that the human and the divine are One, and
his painstaking study of Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, and the Bhagavad
Gita, are clearly manifested in his writing. His Four Zoas appear to
have a source in the Four Guardians (Lokapalas) of the four quarters of
the Hindu mythology. According to Damon, Blake’s zoas were derived
from the three Goons, sativa, rajas and tamas described in the Bhagavad
Gita. Blake’s profound emphasis on mysticism, especially in Songs of
Experience (1794) and his principal prose work, The Marriage of. pan ig
and Hell (1790), was radically out of character with the literary tradition
in England at the time, and he was long regarded as an eccentric. In
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell he vigorously and satirically denied the
reality of matter and eternal punishment. In Songs of Experience, too bs
protested against restrictive codes and exalted the spirit of love. His i
poems were written between 1788 and 1820, the period of hori
discovery of Indian literature, thus Indian inspiration of Blake is plaus! f
Whilst some attempts to explain Blake’s thought as an independe
growth away from Indian ideas could have been conditioned by prejt 7
against alien influences others are the result of the critics’ ee
knowledge of philosophical thought in general, and of Indian philosoph
in particular. Consequently, even some competent recent studies, su the
Désirée Hirsťs Hidden Riches, do not given proper consideration to
Indian inspiration of Blake or of English Romanticism.”

from
argely

peer 690

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859), whose qualities as a writer
are fascinating despite criticisms of his indulgences as a man, knew
something of Indian ideas. In his famous autobiographical narrative,
Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822), he describes how in his
opium dreams he was hounded by Brahma, Visnu, and Siva.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) found a basis for his doctrine of
superiority in the caste system. Carlyle, who was a radical early in life
and in the course of years became more and more hostile to democracy
and advocated British imperialism, divided humanity into supermen and
helots. His way of combatting anarchy by finding heroes who commanded
obedience is somewhat reminiscent of Indian brahmanical supremacy.'®

William Wordsworth (1770-1850), who expressed the deepest
aspirations of English Romanticism, endeavoured throughout his
writing to communicate his new vision of nature, which was so alien to
English tradition that it was not until 1830 that his poetry was given
wide public recognition. In intimacy with nature and its beauties, he
also found a corrective to his personal despondency. Apart from this,
however, Wordsworth seriously attempted to work out a bridge between
mental and material worlds. It is impossible for a person familiar with
Indian thought not to see the reflections of Vedanta in Wordsworth
when he reads:

And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime,
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
(“Tintern Abbey,” 1798)

mee Hindu thought is recognizable in Wordsworth’s a a
to have p acterized as “unconscious” or coincidental for he is consi Eis

Saa day impressed in his romantic ideas by his enthusiasm
nce and the French Revolution. This view, however, does not

oft

691

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

sufficiently account for the fact that, after his return from France at the
age of twenty-eight, Wordsworth—together with Coleridge—gaye 7
his dreams of political regeneration for the vision of bringing the greatest
possible degree of happiness to the world through proper cultivation of
sensibility and imagination in Lyrical Ballads (1798). By the time Lyrical
Ballads appeared, the works of Sir William Jones had spread some
knowledge of Indian thought in England.

Wordsworth’s friend, collaborator, and “his spirit’s brother,” Samuel
Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), was also guided by the same vision,
Indeed, he went a step farther in dabbling with the supernatural, as
is reflected in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798). Although
Coleridge did not use Indian material, he was greatly attracted by the
words and pictures of old tales, some of which must have come from
India. His Eastern inspiration is to some extent attested to by the elusive
yet arresting images in “Kubla Khan” (1797). This influence is also
displayed in his Circassian love song, “Lewti.’

Coleridge emphasized the Neoplatonic tradition and introduced into
England the new idealism of Germany, which was influenced by Indian
thought. More than any other English Romantic, he was responsible for
bringing about the literary revolution which regarded imagination as the
most important creative faculty. His cardinal doctrine, reminiscent of
the Vedanta, was the wholeness of, and continuity in, self-consciousness
as the basis of mental experience which was all absorbed into a single
dynamic force, the divine spark in each person, the “I” of every rational
being, the free will which was the eventual source of religious faith as well
as of genuine perception. Coleridge was well aware of Indian literature,
as is illustrated by his letter to John Thirlwell in which he said he often
wished to sleep or die, or “like the Indian Vishnu, to float about along
an infinite ocean cradled in the flower of the Lotus and wake once 10@
million years for a few minutes.””” aaah

John Keats (1795-1821), although he knew little about India, os
somewhat drawn to her as the passage about the Indian maid in Endy’ on

_ (1818) reveals. Keats was fascinated by the romantic aspect opan
mythology but Endymion was severely criticized at the time for n,
Greek quality. Keats wrote all the poems which brought him such fan
hin twelve months of Endymion’s publication.

692

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), who wrote The Revolt of Islam and
was attracted by an idealized version of the Vale of Kashmir, propounds
most magnificently the vedantic doctrine of maya in his elegy dedicated

to Keats, Adonais (1821), perhaps his finest single poem.

The one remains, the many change and pass.
Heaven's light for ever shines, Earth’s shadows fly.
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass.

Stains the white radiance of Eternity,

Until Death tramples it to fragments.

Simultaneously a song of lamentation and a song of triumph, the
poem makes no distinction between mortality and immortality. Shelley's
passionate conviction that Adonais is not dead, but has “awakened from
the dream of Life” and is “made one with Nature,” is highly significant.”
Hindu thought maintains that the end of the journey is to become one
with the absolute. Shelley’s suggestion that birth interrupts a state of
bliss which death restores

‘That Light whose smile kindles the Universe,
That Beauty in which all things work and move,
‘That Benediction which the eclipsing curse of
birth can quench not.... (Adonais)

“Very close to the Indian concept. Engaged in the pursuit of an un-
pauls ideal of beauty, Shelley was inspired by his love for the universe,
wich included not only the human race or even all living beings, but
3 Clements of nature. His identification with nature—he becomes one
3 f c lark in “Toa Skylark,” with the cloud in “The Cloud,” and with
ei in “Ode to the West Wind”—and penetrating perception of
In 1s Meaning approximate Indian thought. z l
poem 0, Robert Southey (1774-1843) published his long narrative
Altho He of Kehama, drawing upon romantic material from India.
is cae Southey had studied Indian society and literature and claimed
adh “™ as an authentic picture of India, his knowledge was ee
Mon © Btaphically endeavoured to show that Hinduism was a false an
“trous religion. Based on a theme from Hindu mythology, this

693

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

poem conveyed little of India, but added distortion and confusion to
the British view of Indian life. Ultimately, Southey himself found the
poem unsatisfactory, as did his contemporaries, such as Sir Walter Scott,
Southey, neither as famous nor as brilliant as his friends Wordsworth
and Coleridge, was united with them in the ardour of youthful ideas, and
during the years of maturity, in reaction against those same ideas. The
foreign influence in his poetry is so prominent that he is remembered
primarily for his outlandish settings.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) was also attracted by Indian material,
He showed an insight into Indian society and customs in his poem
Lalla Rookh (1817), which brought the then huge sum of three thousand
guineas for the author. The first edition sold out immediately and during
the course of the century it went into innumerable editions. In view of the
fact that novels were far too expensive to buy in relation to the average
income of the time, the rapid reprints of Lalla Rookh reveal more than
ordinary attraction for Indian situations. Lalla Rookh consisted of four
narrative poems woven into the romantic tale of a Mughal princess’
love for a Kashmiri poet. Mainly concerned with delighting his readers,
Moore presented India as a land of dazzling beauty, full of magnificent
palaces, splendid temples, and perfumed gardens. His descriptions of
the country, however, merely underlined the prevalent conventionally
distorted picture of political India. He relied on rather undependable
sources, and occasionally let his imagination get the better of him, a a
result of which certain absurd, even nonsensical, descriptions crept int
his work.

Many writers used India as a locale for European adventu
instance, India figured prominently in The Surgeon's Daughter by a
Walter Scott (1771-1832). However, he knew nothing of India, an
hinted as much in the introduction to the novel. The story begins 1
Scotland and ends in the territory of Haider Ali and Tipu eu
the famous rulers of eighteenth-century Mysore, which had recen y
been conquered by the British after a series of prolonged and Gare
campaigns. Scott’s characters and situations were, of course, Be
his knowledge of Indian history inaccurate; and he had a Scotsman $ 9
for fairy tales, fables, and folklore. ; die
‘Most fiction writers of this period had no personal knowledge of Inc

re. For

ph eee 694

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

and used Indian situations primarily to advance the popularity of their
works. But the case of Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay is somewhat
different and, therefore, puzzling. He was a well-known man of letters
o India in 1834 where he lived for four years. However,

when he came t
ad little of Indian literature and made no serious evaluation of India

he re
and her heritage, even though scores of European scholars had revealed
the richness of Indian learning, which was available in any number of
European languages. If he had done so, the history of the Anglo-Indian
relationship might have been different. He wrote one small volume of
essays on India, but it was written with such fervour and effect that it
was the standard authority on India for many years in England. The
revolt of 1857 gave these essays additional popularity as they were easy
on the English ear. Despite the abundance of evidence contradicting
Macaulay, later English writers continued to echo his ideas again and
again, thereby keeping a falsehood alive. Macaulay's India was a distant
land across boundless seas and deserts where dusky natives lived under
strange stars, worshipped strange gods, and wrote strange characters
from right to left.

Itis not surprising that India figured in English Romanticism. What
does astonish historians is that the Romantic writers found India of
only passing and minor interest. Perhaps the complexities of a political
relationship hampered a better understanding of Indian culture. Britons
came to India to govern, acquire wealth, live without interrupting their
own habits and customs, and return home in comfort and economic
security, Belief in their political ascendancy and material prosperity as
ess of cultural superiority possibly rendered them unreceptive to any

F ite negative aspects of Indian society. There were, no doubt, some
eae administrators who made notable contributions to ee
sche of the traders, as well as the adventurers ee eae
« thie a hardly noo culture; they were ae ae
certain de pagoda tree! Whilst British se eee
on both an saon finality after the revolt of 1857, a ee D A
mindful of E The Brigis pou = = and dices which
Made th, ow closel shew badio ea oe ne the other

even afraid. The Indians, on
and rganized preparations for

em cautious, suspicious,
E
Marting under defeat, turned to more ©

695

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

their national reconstruction. Each side remembered the Savagery and

it. It was in
this atmosphere of mutual distrust and fear, later worsened by political

crises and conflicts, that cultural intercourse between India and Britain
took place. For instance, John Ruskin (1819-1900), whose Opinion was
coloured by the events of 1857, dismissed Indians and their philosophy
as “childish, or restricted in intellect and similarly childish or restricted
in their philosophies or faiths.””!

brutalities of the other, without recalling their own part in

Ruskin wrote and spoke with equal authority and arrogance on subjects
he knew well and those he knew nothing about. However, he was a great
teacher—he was Slade Professor of Art at Oxford—and a master of prose.
But he was a complex person, at once charming and sinister, righteous
and satanic. He inherited a strain of madness and suffered intermittently
from insanity. Tennyson expressed sentiments similar to Ruskin’s in his
Defence of Lucknow. But these are extreme examples of English response
to India in which reason was subordinated to prejudice.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Buddhism became
better known in Britain, as in Europe. Indeed, since the end of the
nineteenth century, many European thinkers and writers have proposed
the adoption of Buddhism by the West. Whatever their success, there
is no doubt that in recent times Buddhism, because of its rational and
realistic character, has gained popularity in the West. Of the three
Eastern civilizations, Indian, Chinese, and Islamic, the Indians have
influenced the modern West most, especially through Buddhism. In fact,
the West—especially Christians—regarded Buddhism as so powerful
that it was dangerous. d

Sir Edwin Arnold’s famous poem, The Light of Asia, published in
1879, which is based on Lalitavistara, singing the praise of the Buddha
has become extremely popular. In America it has gone through one
hundred editions, and in England between fifty to one hundred. it r
been translated into several European languages. Later, scholars like f
W. Rhys Davids (1843-1922), who greatly aided the interpretation ‘i
early Buddhism by editing Pali sources, Mrs. Caroline Rhys, Davids a
Carus, Edward Conze, Christmas Humphreys, and others contribute
to the popularity. of Buddhism in the West.

696

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

In 1881 T. W. Rhys Davids founded the Pali Text Society which
atracted the attention of a number of European scholars to a new and
important branch of Indian thought and literature. In addition to two
dozen volumes of translations, the Society published one hundred and
seventeen volumes of Pali texts and a Pali-English dictionary. The
Buddhist Society in London and elsewhere has also played an important
role in exposing the West to Buddhist teaching. Looking at the notices of
meetings and lectures in any recent issue of the London New Statesman
for example, one must get the impression that during the past decade
orso interest in Indian thought, especially Buddhism, has been steadily
growing in Europe.

Actually, early in the nineteenth century, attempts were made to prove
the Buddhistic origins of primitive Christianity. N. A. Notovick’s book,
Inconnue Vie de Jesus Christ (Unknown Life of Jesus Christ), published in
1834, sought to prove that Jesus had been initiated into his career by a
sixteen-year stay with Brahmans and Buddhist monks. Many scholars
from different countries later combined in trying to discover cases of
Christian dependence on Buddhism, such as Rudolf Seydel (1882), A.
S. Edmunds (1909), and Richard Garbe (1914). In 1882 Notovick’s
book came under heavy criticism. In the English translation of the work
he endeavoured to answer the criticism, maintaining that the doctrine
contained in the Tibetan verses was the same as that of the Gospels,
differing only in outward appearance.”

India even partly conditioned English character, for the conquest of
india made England a powerful political and military empire. A sense
of racial Superiority and national exclusiveness, and of a predetermined
eee inverted nationalism which often manifests itself in

nderstatements and in deceptively disguised self-praise for which the
ie well known, strict individualism neatly integrated in mee

P $ ¢, and ability for endurance under sustained pressure, are na

ieee of the British association with India. :

een conti € early days of the East India Company, In x ae
azaar ie ously adopted into English. Typical er S ee
begum a a, khaki, bungalow, divan, pundit, pajamas, ba ae
vakil . “nop, chit, cot, fakir, purdah, raj, nabob, darshan, pi o
> enana, palanquin, mulligatawney, chutney, swaraj, and shikar.

words have

697

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

“The Oxford English Dictionary,” observes Subba Rao “which rejects

over half the words noticed by Hobson-Jobson and does not contain words

which have become familiar only in very recent times, accords recognition
to about a thousand words, apart from numerous compounds and
derivatives.” It is, however, true that this number, large as it is, is small
considering the length and intensity of Indo-British contact, and also
in comparison to the English words adopted by Indian languages, The
assimilation of language over this period was conditioned by the nature
and need of the relationship. For instance, in the early phase when contact
was predominantly commercial, the words borrowed were mainly from
that vocabulary. Later, when Indian thought, literature, and philosophy
began to attract the attention of the English scholars, English men of
letters began to use terminology from these fields in their writing. Milton,
Dryden, Orme, Burke, Scott, ‘Thackeray, and T. S. Eliot are some of the
eminent writers who made effective use of Indian words.

In a unique although incidental way, India helped to develop not only
British economy and social life, but also political thought. The increasing
influx of Indian wealth into England created a new class, whose widening
horizon for the deployment and experimentation of political ideas
required a setting of India’s size. In the East India Company Adam
Smith saw an embodiment of the hated “mercantile system.” Many
English political movements tested their strength and fought their early
contests upon Indian questions. A few Englishmen had succeeded in
carving out an empire and enforcing an organized, although intensely
authoritarian, government. India provided the much needed efficiency
in administration and the purpose in government for the dominant
English Liberalism of the day, in addition to an operation base for Mes
trade and the missionary activities of Evangelicalism. It was this Indian
experience which influenced Utilitarian thought, and caused John ae
Mill to criticize Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. He called his book
“little more than the turning of an Indian lantern on European pe
One obvious example of Indian influence is the development of Britis :
imperialism, another lies in the reform of the civil service. Maine i
deeply influenced by India in his study of early societies. He wrote atte

the publication of Popular Government: “If there was an ideal ela
hould probably be a Tory; but I should wish to win now. The tru

FE 698

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

dia and the India Office make one judge public men by standards

is, In mee FS
little to do with public opinion.

which have
Echoes of Indian thought could be heard even in lands only remotely

concerned with India. For instance, in the works of Mihai Eminescu
(1850-1889), the greatest poet of Rumania, Sanskrit and Buddhist
influences are found. Eminescu learned of Indian philosophy through
Schopenhauer. He also had some knowledge of the Sanskrit language,
although it is doubtful that he could read original Sanskrit texts.
However, he translated Franz Bopp’s Glossarium Sanskriticum and a part
of his Dictionary. Parts of his poetry appear to be Rumanian versions of
well-known Sanskrit texts. For example, in Letter number one, his vision of
the origin of the world, when the existent and the non-existent were not,
is reminiscent of the “Hymn of Creation” from the Rig Veda. The idea of
nirvana is frequently found in his poems. The Hindu approach to reality
and beauty is reflected in many of his verses. Indian literary legends and
themes are also found in poems such as “God and Man” and “Looking
for Sheherezade.” Not only the title of his poem, “Tattwamasi,” indicates
his familiarity with upanishadic thought, but the content deals with the
identity of Atman and Brahman. Hindu monism is reflected in his

So it is that bird and man,
Sun and moon

Are born and die in Brahma
the Sacred—

Where all things become one.”

Pminescu’s poetry also contains many erotic themes such as Kamadeva,
ae Hindu god of love, the spark of creation. That Eminescu chose
by zii symbol to express one of his intimate sentiments is held as
oe proof of the deep and wide contact he had with the ancient

re of Indija.”26
Sn intellectuals, too, reacting against the ne
is Od of life, turned towards the East for inspiration. oug
est evement was not as powerful as the Romantic movement in
conn Europ e, especially in Germany, Russia, aided by her gue
in her a territorial frontiers in Asia, acquired a new Asian awar
tional disposition. In fact, even before the big Russian advance
699

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

eastwards, Chadaiev said in 1840 that “We are the darling children of the
East. Everywhere we are in contact with the East, it is from there that
we have drawn our belief, our laws, our virtue ....”2” He goes on to claim
that as the East is declining, Russia is the natural successor to Eastern
wisdom. Maxim Gorki (1868-1936) in a letter to Romain Rolland said
that Russia was more Oriental than China. Dostoievsky declared that it
would be beneficial for Russia to turn her soul towards the East. In fact,
there has always been a sort of gulf between Western Europe and Russia,
the former frequently referring to the latter as the East.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) responded to the East with great sensitivity,
At Kazan he studied Oriental languages and literature, and came into
close contact with Asian people during his frequent visits to Caucasus.
He acquired an early reverent interest in Indian culture which he always
retained. In 1870 he published a collection of folktales which included
some Indian stories. His Confession, in which he describes his spiritual
struggles, refers more than once to the Buddha with admiration, relates
some of the episodes of the Buddha’s Renunciation, and seeks to
demonstrate the futility of human life on earth in terms of an ancient
Indian parable. Ancient Indian literature, Max Miiller’s series, Sacred Books
of the East, and later, the writings of Vivekananda made a deep impression
on him. He opposed the imposition of what he considered a degenerating
Western structure on India, but disagreed with Hinduism on a number
of points including Hindu cosmology. Indeed, he looked upon Hinduism
through the eyes of a social reformer, yet Indian thought helped him to
acquire new standards by which he could revaluate Christianity. Tolstoy
corresponded with a number of his Indian friends, including Mahatma
Gandhi and C. R. Das. In Letter to a Hindu, addressed to Gandhi o
1909, Tolstoy quoted from the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the a
Kural, and modern Hindu religious writings, including Vivekanan a
He urged Indians to adopt what he called “the Law of Love,” and no
give up their ancient religious culture for the materialism of the ee
Tolstoy was amongst the first European intellectuals who reflected es
_ the problems facing India. It is well known that his ideas on resistan
_ to aggression influenced Mahatma Gandhi. ih
lian thought made a better impression not only in ae
y Germany, than in England but even in distant America-

na : 700

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

illustration of this influence is the American transcendentalist movement
inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Emerson’s central
theme is that all that exists is the manifestion of a simple universal spirit.
‘The development of Emerson’s thought is revealed in his Journals which
cover twenty years. India is first mentioned in 1842. It seems that in
the beginning Buddhism aroused conflicting feelings in him. Whilst
he admitted the greatness of Buddhist teaching, he was uncertain of its
practicability. He was drawn by the concept of the transmigration of
soul: “Then I discovered the Secret of the World, that all things subsist,
and do not die, but only retire a little from sight and afterwards return
again.”8

The discovery of Hinduism and Buddhism impressed on Emerson
that all religions are fundamentally the same. Eighty years later,
Romain Rolland came to a similar conclusion which he described as the
“predisposition to Vedantism.” Repelled by the increasing materialism
of the West, Emerson turned to India for solace: “The Indian teaching,
through its cloud of legends, has yet a simple and grand religion, like a
queenly countenance seen through a rich veil. It teaches to speak truth,
love others as yourself, and to despise trifles.”” As he grew older he
became increasingly devoted to Hinduism and Buddhism. Nowhere does
Emerson’s transcendentalism find more complete expression than in his
temarkable poem, “Brahma,” which Sencourt suggests is a translation
from Kalidasa through a Latin version known to Dr. Morrison of the
Indian Institute. The poem may not have been a direct translation from
Kalidasa, but it was derived from him. In his essay on Plato, Emerson
explicitly acknowledges his debt to India: “In all nations there are minds
Which incline to dwell in the conception of the fundamental Unity. The
ae ae and ecstasy of devotion lost all being inone ee
and een nds its highest expression in the se va : ee as
the oe = the Indian Scriptures, in the Vedas, e e ae ae
cee urana. Those writings contain little else t an :

© pure and sublime strains in celebrating it.

oe American who turned his attention towards ae ee
Emerson ee (1817-1862), a younger pee oe a T

epi Sage € is chiefly remembered for Walden, w! ( mu 2 ee

S of the British labour movement, and for his essay, in

701

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Disobedience,” in which he protested the government's interference with
individual liberty. In some respect, Mahatma Gandhi’s Philosophy of
life and programme of action were similar to ‘Thoreau’s. Both were keen
naturalists; both believed in the dignity of human labour and attempted
to run self-sufficient farms; both were vegetarians, teetotallers, and non-
smokers; both derived their inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita; and both
were rebels against human injustice.

There is some controversy about Mahatma Gandhi’s debt to Thoreau,
Thoreau partisans suggest that his “On Civil Disobedience,” published
in 1849, was Gandhi's source book in his political campaign for civil
resistance because the Mahatma used the phrase “civil disobedience”
to describe his resistance to the tyranny of the State. Beyond this use
of identical phrases, there is little to substantiate this assertion. In his
autobiography, My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi lists and analyzes
the books that most influenced him during the formative period of his
public life when he was experimenting with the political weapon which
he called satyagraha. In his generous acknowledgement of debts, he
does not refer to the work of Thoreau. Some weight has been lent to
this misconception by an open letter that Gandhi wrote to the people
of America, on the eve of the launching of his Quit India movement
in 1942, in which he showed his great esteem for Thoreau, whom he
called, in his characteristic humility, his “teacher.” This letter, however,
also clearly states that Gandhi had found in Thoreau a teacher Tin
through his essay on civil disobedience, furnished him with scientific
confirmation of what he was doing, and Gandhi was punctilious in his
use of language.”

Thoreau was deeply impressed by Hindu thought and his Jour nal
contains many comments on his extensive reading of Hindu texts. He
wrote in 1850 that the inspiration of the Vedas had fallen on him r
the light of a higher and purer luminary, and risen on him like the fi
moon after the stars had come out. Walden contains explicit references
to Indian scriptures, such as “How much more admirable the phra
Gita than all the ruins of the East.” He even followed a traditional Hin i
way of life. “It was fit that I should live on rice mainly, who loved so a
the philosophy of India.” Thoreau invokes the language of silence, whic
common in India, in his silent communion with the old fisherman"

702

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

at the pond: Even more significant, perhaps, are the many references
he river and the definite equation of Walden Pond with the sacred
Cag ploiuiernissal os these references as simply part of Thoreau’s
temperamental affinity for India is to underestimate the extraordinary
infuence of the Orient on his own thinking and to misunderstand the
purpose of Walden.”

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), who championed American intellectual
independence, was amongst those who came under the influence of

to th

the Transcendentalists. There are no explicit quotations from Indian
literature in Whitman’s writings, but he knew of Indian texts. His poems
show a strong sense of the brotherhood of man, and it was possibly from
the Transcendentalists that he learned an all-inclusive mystical self-
identification with all men and all things. In Song of Myselfhe says that
“all religions are true”; a doctrine which has always found favour with
Hindu thought. In the nineteenth century, this doctrine was powerfully
reaffirmed by Swami Ramakrishna. In some of his later poems Whitman
shows a definite interest in Hindu mysticism. Most significant of these
is Passage to India in which he voices the characteristic Hindu doctrine
that his own soul is one with the soul of the universe.

The Christian Science movement in America was possibly influenced
by India. The founder of this movement, Mary Baker Eddy, in common
with the Vedantins, believed that matter and suffering were unreal, and
that a full realization of this fact was essential for relief from ills and pains.
In Science and Health she asserts: “Christian Science explains all cause and
sect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and
a It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the

wtaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In
ine Science, the “Universe, including man, is spiritual, harmonious,
eee Science shows that what is termed matter is but ame subjective
$ what is termed by the author sortal mind.” The Christian Science
pan has naturally been given a Christian framework, but the echoes

anta in its literature are often striking. :
Boe a the nineteenth century, Vivekananda i ee Be
Were, ae nua ae pee ie, P aA of
See €r, some critics who were ill-informe oa ae
Pts he represented, and who dreaded the influx of alien i

703

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Both the devotion and dispute which his lectures evoked stimulated
further American interest in Indian religion and thought. As a result
Vedanta Centres and Ramakrishna Missions were established in Various
parts of the country, and they flourish today as active nuclei of Indian
thought. Even before Vivekananda fired the imagination of the American
people, Sanskrit philosophy had made an impact on American scholarship
by the teaching of Sanskrit at leading American universities.

Later, Tagore visited the United States three times and travelled
throughout the country lecturing on Indian art and philosophy and giving
readings from his poetry and plays. His writings had already, and have
always, received widespread appreciation.

)

Because of the advance in the mass communication media, the
Indian national movement attracted the attention of European peoples
who were themselyes going through a period of democratic advance,
fighting against traditional and aristocratic oppression. Some European
intellectuals took a purely academic interest in India during this period,
but others were inclined towards a synthesis between East and West.
Amongst the latter, Romain Rolland, the French pacifist and author,
is outstanding. He was deeply concerned with and championed the
cause of Indian thought and culture. He saw a close affinity between the
Aryans of the East and those of the West. He met Indian intellectuals,
especially from the Ramakrishna Mission in Europe. He wrote the
Life of Ramakrishna in which he said, “I am bringing to Europe, as yet
unaware of it, the fruit of a new autumn, a new message of the soul,
the symphony of India, bearing the name of Ramakrishna. The man
whose image I evoke was the consummation of a thousand years of
the spiritual life of three hundred million people.” He also wrote the
world-famous biography of Mahatma Gandhi, which inspired oaa
European thinkers. Having read this biography, Mira ben (Madeleine
Slade), the daughter of an English admiral, renounced a life of luxury y
live in the ashram of Gandhi. In Gandhi, Rolland saw the embed
of all that was simple, modest, and pure. Surprisingly, Rolland ha
never visited India. In close contact on the one hand with Tagore
__ and Gandhi, and on the other with European intellectuals, Rom
- Rolland was a unique mediator between India and the West. Althous :
ut Christian himself, he often felt that his Christianity had mo"

704

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

in common with the religions of India than with the church in which

he was brought up.

Of modern Indian thinkers, M. K. Gandhi (1869-1948) had the
most influence on the outside world. Gandhi has often been described
as the greatest man since Jesus; he certainly was India’s greatest since the
Buddha. He represented Indian idealism at its best. All his life he worked
on almost all fronts of the Indian revolution, but he combatted evil with
good and in the true spirit of love. Satya (truth) was his God; ahimsa
(non-violence), his creed. He believed violence to be the antithesis of
the spirit of truth. Inflicting physical injury or uttering an unkind word,
even thinking ill of others, were serious violations of ahimsa. Indeed, to
be truly non-violent meant that one must love his opponent and pray for
him even when attacked. No wonder many Christians see in Gandhian
doctrines a reflection of Christian thought.

Indeed Gandhi was a great admirer of Christianity, and often admitted
the influence of the Sermon on the Mount which he believed contained
Jesus’ message of non-violence. Frequently he would read passages from
the Bible in his daily prayer meetings. “When I survey the wondrous
Cross” and “Lead kindly light amid the encircling gloom” were his
favourite hymns. Romain Rolland described Gandhi as the “St. Paul of
our own days.” Gandhi was so devoted to Jesus that in the earlier phase
of his career many of his Christian friends thought his conversion was
imminent. But he was a Hindu to the core. Defining his attitude to a
Prominent Indian Christian, Kali Charan Banerjee, he said: “Today my
Position is that, though I admire much in Christianity, I am unable to
te myself with orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility
ne Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my Cs
ane. and I find a solace in the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads that

ke ven fe the Sermon on the Mount.” i

_topotkin’s essays awakened Gandhi’s.ideas of pacific anarchism.

` completely non-violent society was to be stateless, for it was not
Gee to impose non-violence on a person OF society. Toho E
to cae God is Within You and Ruskin’s Unto This Last contribute

Gia philosophy.

, although he belonged to humanity an

ing d wielded unparalleled
uence over millions of people all over the world, was,

in all respects,

705

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

essentially an Indian. As a London Times editorial said on the day after
his death: “No country but India and no religion but Hinduism could
have given birth to a Gandhi.”

Whilst the full reprecussions of Gandhi’s influence are still to be
seen, there is no doubt they will be unending and inexhaustible. His
philosophy has already assumed a selfperpetuating quality. His doctrines
of non-violence and satyagraha have not only given Indians a new means
of fighting for their rights but have become a source of inspiration to all
seekers of justice everywhere. Indeed, non-Indian movements, notably
those led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the American South and Kenneth
Kaunda in Northern Rhodesia, might even be regarded as more truly
Gandhian in essence than similar movements within India today.

Since the days of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-1956,
followed by the upsurge of the sit-ins and freedom rides of 1960-1 961,
the movement for civil rights in the United States has been strongly
based on the Gandhian concept of non-violence. The movement, as
expected, has assumed a distinctively local character and personality,
and has gained notable successes in advancing the Negro revolution in
America. Martin Luther King often acknowledged his debt to Gandhian
thought and literature.

In Nazi Germany, the real resistance that developed within the
country itself was inspired by Gandhian theories of passiveness and non-
violent revolution. Its leader, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was so impressed by
the possibility of applying these ideas to Christianity, and employing
Gandhian resistance against Hitler’s tyranny that he arranged to make
a “pilgrimage to India” to visit Gandhi, but political events prevented
him from undertaking the journey. oi

Today, wherever there is a popular people’s movement against injustice,
it proceeds along lines inspired by Gandhian satyagraha. Indeed what
Marx is to socialism Gandhi is to modern active pacifism. His doctrine
of class co-operation and trusteeship inspires hope in those who loathe
the prospect of achieving progress only through class conflict. Bey
Not coercion, is the keynote of polity today. In fact, serious, and 7
me ways diverse, British writers, such as Sir Stephen King-Hall ai
sley Martin, suggest that any resistance to nuclear war must be DF
organized on Gandhian lines, An Indian Gandhi scholar writes

706

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

“Countries distant from India, wherever the field is ready or rather where
there are workers in the field, have been influenced by the Gandhian
approach to the spiritual and practical fusion. Serious studies in Group
Dynamics, group and individual action-therapy are being pursued in
great institutions abroad; the Gandhian quantum which stimulates higher

ties and cohesion rather than spreads negative crowd-infection has
035

loyal
stimulated new sociological and applicational research.

Romain Rolland spoke for many of Gandhi's Western admirers when
he wrote: “Gandhi is not only for India a hero of national history whose
legendary memory will be enshrined in the millennial epoch. He has not
only been the spirit of active life which has breathed into the peoples of
India the proud consciousness of their unity, of their power, and the will
to their independence. He has renewed, for all the people of the West,
the message of their Christ, forgotten or betrayed. He has inscribed his
name among the sages and saints of humanity; and the radiance of his
figure has penetrated into all the regions of the earth.” The American
missionary, John Haynes Holmes, declared: “If I believe in rebirth, I
should—I mention it with due respect-see in Mahatma Gandhi the
Christ returned to our world.”

Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950), the modern Indian philosopher,
transformed the Hindu spiritual heritage into a dynamic spiritual
evolution. He is the only modern Indian thinker known both as a Yogi
and as a philosopher. He sought to reconcile the theories of ancient
Vedanta with those of modern scientific materialism and vitalism,
hus attempting to harmonize spiritual and material demands. He was
*Pposed to scientific materialism that sought to reduce man to the
Position of an insect.
va believed in the omnipresence of the One and the inevitable
woes of man’s evolution into an integral and gyman unon
ae fe in life. Reality, although manifold in I : EA

TS visible. There is nothing else but Him, and to infuse tsi a
ea O and perfection into worldly life and nature 1s the Orson
“Y individual human soul. This was the core of Aurobindo's philosophy

and the Central aim of his Yoga. His Spiritual Realism thus departs

ae = traditional Indian doctrine of maya. Aurobindo was educated
E by the theory of

» and his philosophy was greatly influenced
707

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

evolution and the Western positive attitude to the material world, but
he discovered both of these elements in the Saiva and the Sakta forms
of the Advaita.” Romain Rolland regarded Aurobindo as the highest
synthesis of the genius of Europe and the genius of Asia, He was an
Indian rishi who had gained a clear insight into the modern scientific
mind. Instead of finding a conflict between East and West he saw the
old heritage of the East and the new knowledge of the West as one
organized whole. His philosophy, like that of Gandhi, was couched ina
language drawn from India’s past, but was addressed to problems posed
in the modern West.

Whilst Aurobindo’s philosophy was rooted in the vedantic
consciousness, his Muslim contemporary, Sir Muhammed Iqbal
(1876-1938), was deeply committed to Islam. Poet and philosopher, he
wrote one of the most popular national songs of India, “Sare Jahan se
Acchha Hindustan Hamara.” He was well versed in European thought
and culture but is better known as a poet than as a philosopher, although
he inspired the creation of Pakistan. In Germany, where he completed
his doctoral thesis on Persian metaphysics, he became acutely conscious
of both the good and the evil of Western scientific materialism, and of
the consequent agonizing inner conflicts amongst European intellectuals
and nations. He admired the vitality and dynamism of European life
but criticized its mechanistic and utilitarian aspects. In his poems and
teaching he combined his Islamic beliefs with Western rationalism and
was heavily influenced by Nietzsche.

Although a mystic, he preached the glorification and divination of
desire rather than its negation. Somewhat like the Bhagavad Gita, he
urged man not so much to seek God as to seek his own true self. ae
essence of his philosophy was the quest for perfect man which could ony

-be achieved through persistent and continuous personal effort. po
the last years of his life, Iqbal was increasingly attracted by the pros? s
of Soviet Russia.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a poet, philosopher, €

1 abov humanist. Fundamentally inspired by the Upa k

the new India belonged to one race or religion e :

o Western capitals were invariably attended by R

me an. object of world-wide adoration. For 2 p°®?

duc ator,
nish ads,

708

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

especially of a subject-nation, this reception was unique. Despite this,
the award of the Nobel Prize in 1913 to Tagore, against the claims of
such famous Europeans as Thomas Hardy, Anatole France, Tolstoy, and
Zola, drew protests from certain sections of the European and American
press because Tagore was not “white.” Perhaps in honouring Tagore, the
West was endeavouring to show its appreciation of the Indian heritage
which he so nobly symbolized.

Tagore wrote in both Bengali and English, and from 1913 onwards his
poetry was translated into practically every European language. No other
Indian has received greater honour in the West during his lifetime. Such
appreciation cannot be altogether devoid of understanding. The West,
involved in the conflicts of political and military alignments, on the brink
of World War I was frustrated at the futility of material advancement.
At this time Tagore brought to them a message which appealed “to their
intelligence, their goodwill, their longing for emancipation from the
chains of dead matter, speaking to white, black and yellow in the same
language with the simplicity of a child and a prophet.”

After the war, Europe’s response to the culture of Asia took conflicting
forms. Whilst some thinkers defended the West, others hailed the
East. In this process of European rethinking, India and Tagore played
an important role. Numerous Western readers eagerly read Tagore’s
works, hoping to find mystical solace from the frustrations of life. Many
European intellectuals were so firmly convinced that only Eastern ideals
could save them that innumerable pseudo-oriental societies were founded
all over Europe. Many of these societies had inaccurate knowledge of
the East and practiced popularized forms of pseudo-Buddhistic and
yogic cults,

noe the many European intellectuals and artists Tagore met,
He FS ae Yeats (1865-1939) was one of his more noni ce
taal os The Cardener to Yeats. Yeats e that ie Re
meen ae experience, a sate of trance where = ee

ad ee toe subconscious is transformed me rou cane ie

intimate ¢ origins. Yeats had discovered India, in a ong Ca

€ compared 7 sulowed three years Ess bys aa Devas
€ ministering spirits of intellectual beauty with the

709

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

of the East. Impressed in his adolescence by Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism
he was alienated from science; Theosophy, Buddhism, Odic Force, ne
poetry constituted his world for a long time. In his Autobiography he
recalls that it was under the impact of psychical research and mystical
philosophy that he broke away from his father’s influence, and he spent
much time in mystical gatherings during his school days. Describing
his first meeting with a Hindu philosopher at Dublin, Yeats said:
“It was my first meeting with a philosophy that confirmed my vague
speculations and seemed at once logical and boundless. Consciousness,
he taught, does not merely spread out its surface but has, in vision and
in contemplation, another motion, and can change in height and in
depth.” His appreciation of India, however, in common with many
European intellectuals, was more romantic than academic. After his
contact with Tagore and his discovery of the English version of the
Gitanjali, he turned more towards the East for inspiration. When Sir
William Rothenstein, the celebrated English art critic and painter who
was chiefly responsible for introducing Tagore to English intellectuals,
gave Yeats the manuscript of the Gitanjali to read before it was published,
Yeats was so deeply moved by it that he carried it with him everywhere.
He records in his preface to the first edition of Gitanjali: “The lyrics ...
display in their thought a world I have dreamed of all my life long. The
work of a supreme culture, they yet appear as much the growth of the
common soil as the grass and the rushes.” He continues: “A whole
people, a whole civilization, immeasurably strange to us, seem to have
been taken up into this imagination; and yet we are not moved because
of its strangeness, but because we have met our own image, as though
we had walked in Rossetti’s willow wood, or heard, perhaps for the first
time in literature, our voice as in a dream.”*! Yeats wrote some Boeke
which had an Indian setting, such as “Jealousy.” “Kanva on Hige :
based on a Hindu prayer: “I have lived many lives .... Everything t24
has been shall be again.” É

The quality Yeats valued most in Tagore’s poetry was his unio” :
sensuous images and deep spiritual appreciation of life. Yeats also TE
to what he called the “unity of being,” to bring together the natura 3
sp itual world in his poetry. In his conception, nature a A
; separated by thought, and the constricting sense of guilt

n of

ay

710

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

banished by gaiety and joyfulness in which the creative mind of the artist

had been freed. Acco
metaphor and general structure, was no longer acceptable because spirit

d matter were irrevocably separated and as a result nature had become
evil. Yeats could not forsake nature which was so full of art, beauty, and
music. In Tagore he found a saint who sang of the joy in life without
disturbing its deep sense of sanctity. Unlike Tagore, however, Yeats was
keenly interested in the Yoga system and the Tantra. The authoritative
texts of these two systems had reached Europe at about the same time
and they made a further impact on Yeats.

Towards the end of his life Yeats moved away from Tagore a little, but
he continued to draw inspiration from India, which contained for him
the vision of the final harmony in human life. Like another Trish poet,
George William Russell (popularly known as A. E.) who had also come
under the influence of the Upanishads and Theosophy, Yeats discovered
an identical spirit underlying both Gaelic and Indian civilizations.

In his “Meru” (1935)—Meru is the central mountain of the world
in Indian mythology—Yeats contrasts the peaceful life of the mystic,
despite the hardships of nature, with the transitory cycle of creation
and destruction exemplified in the world of man. Yeats was influenced
not only by Indian mysticism, but also by the secular aspects of Indian
classical literature and art.

Traces of the influence of Indian secular thought are also noticed in
the works of other writers, such as Edward Carpenter, Havelock Ellis,
and D. H. Lawrence, who found support in the Kama Sutra for their
tevolt against the rigid sexual ethics ofan earlier period. This text, widely
moe restrictions on it of various kinds, has had a far more subtle

n Western people than is often realized.
aa ates of T. S. Eliot, Aldous Pee a
ilian ae an pe ee En = ly concerned mith
l novelist, and a satirist of his age, was OP. ly co

ae religions and philosophy. He was, however, a highly sophisticated
“fopean with scientific training. He tested both aesthetic enjoyment
we Mystic experience by what he saw in conduct and behaviour, Both
himself and in the world around him. He found many faults with
Ne Indian attitude towards life. Yet he was convince

rding to Yeats, European writing, despite its familiar

an

and W. H. Auden

d, after prolonged

711

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

reflection, that society could not be changed unless the individual
sensibility, cleansed of all passions, proceeded towards selfrealization
through selflessness. In Beyond the Mexique Bay (1934) and Ends and
Means (1937) he suggests that the flux of time is an illusion caused
by man’s preoccupation with his personal affairs, and it is through
contemplation that man can merge into the timelessness of reality. For
the first time in Ends and Means, a pacifist manifesto, Huxley almost
reverentially mentions Gandhi, in whose achievement means and
ends are inseparable. In Ape and Essence (1948) he regarded Gandhi's
assassination as a cosmic tragedy. The Perennial Philosophy (1946) is yet
another illustration of his knowledge of Indian thought, especially the
Vedanta.

T. S. Eliot shows considerable knowledge of and sympathy with
Hinduism and Buddhism in his writings. The Waste Land, for instance,
contains references to a sermon of the Buddha and to a famous passage
of the Bribadaranyaka Upanishad, and concludes, like an Upanishad, with
the Sanskrit words Shantih shantih shantih (Peace! Peace!! Peace!!!!). Four
Quartets reaffirms his familiarity with and interest in the Hindu and
Buddhist texts. In “The Dry Salvages,” which treats time and eternity,
he makes an explicit reference to the Bhagavad Gita and to its cardinal
doctrine of niskama karma—that all man’s actions should be motivated
by rightness and goodness, not by expectation of gain or merit.

Indian influences can easily be seen in Somerset Maughams

The Razor's Edge, and in the writings of Edith Sitwell, Cu a
Isherwood, and Gerald Heard. C. G. Jung interpreted Hinduism an
Buddhism in terms of his psychological system, and pointed out the gr oe
significance of Indian thought for the modern West: “We do not ia
realise that while we are turning upside down the material world of z
East with our technical proficiency, the East with its psychic E RA
throwing our spiritual world into confusion. We have never yet Ine P F
the thought that while we are overpowering the Orient from without
may be fastening its hold upon us from within.”
M: y other Western scientists have been profou roe?
ught, causing them to revise their own intellectua if
d inheritance. The relationship between the body a
much a concern of the Western psychologist as if ”

ndly attracted by

o

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

of the ancient Indian philosopher. Kenneth Walker, a famous British

surgeon, has devoted a good deal of time and writing to the study of
5 a .

Indian thought and literature in search of an answer:

From the point of view of science we see man as an elaborate piece of mechanism,
his actions determined by man’s endocrine glands, his central nervous system, his
hereditary endowments, and his environment. From philosophy we learn that his
capacity for knowledge is strictly limited, so that by means of the sense organs
alone he can never know reality. This is confirmed by Eastern philosophy, but a
new idea is added. Man, as he is, can see no more and do no more, but by right
effort and right method, he can gain new powers, understand more, and achieve
more. Finally we have the confirmation of this idea by religion. Whatever may be
the differences in their creed, whatever may be the variations in their philosophy,
all religions, without exception, contain this idea of the possibility of change, so
that a man may become other than he is. From the point of view of all religions
man is a being in whom are lying latent higher powers.”

Amongst contemporary interpreters of Indian culture and philosophic
thought, S. Radhakrishnan (1888-) is the best known. His many works,
almost thirty, written in superb English with arresting originality, his
long period of teaching Indian philosophy at Oxford University, and
his eloquent, lucid lectures, have made him the representative Indian
philosopher for most foreigners. His scholarly status, no doubt, has
been aided by his pre-eminence in Indian political life; he served a term
*s India’s Rastrapati, President. In fact, well before Radhakrishnan’s
Work became widely known, he had made such an impact on the West
Hat more than thirty years ago C. E. M. Joad published a book entitled
Counterattack fi rom the East. The Philosophy of. Radhakrishnan.

i ee Radhakrishnan is regarded as the philosopher of a dynamic
a Sm characterized by a deep spiritual note, a catholic outlook, an
eh ciation of the eternal values of all cultures and religions, and an
i ake confident optimism as to the future of human civilization. His
and Se contains certain influences of Western thinkers such as Plato
€ ac egel, but it is essentially upanishadic in its Se,
Oes a the monistic and the theistic view of the Upanishads, an
e ‘ot subordinate the one to the other. The essence of his idealism is
pamacy of the spirit and its manifestation in matter, life, mind, and

713

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

self. It is not the substance of Hegel, for it is not immobile but dynamic
and real. It is felt everywhere, although seen nowhere. The Spirit is the
absolute, and is not only imminent but also transcendent. He is a follower
of Samkara, but does not regard the world as an illusion (maya), as most
other Advaitins do. Although the creation of the world is inexplicable,
the world is not devoid of value and importance. He would prefer to tre
the world as a combination of being and non-being.

Of the other interpreters of Indian culture who have made substantial
impact on Western thinking, Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947)
is unique. Burn in Ceylon of a highly successful Ceylonese barrister
and a British mother, and originally trained as a geologist, he became
a scholar and philosopher wholly wedded to the Indian tradition. His
masterly analysis of Indian culture exhibits a rare combination of scientific
investigation and artistic formulation. His researches include work on
archaeology, philology, iconography, metaphysics, and religion. For
the last thirty years of his life he worked at the Boston Museum of Fine
Arts. His writing reveals a devoted, painstaking, and erudite scholarship,
encyclopaedic intellect, and sensitive insight. His works have acquired
such a high degree of authority that it is virtually impossible to pick up
any significant modern work on Indian art which has not drawn upon
Coomaraswamy.

He wanted India to remain Indian and continue to demonstrate that
a pattern of life rooted in religion and philosophy can also be elegant,
graceful, and fully satisfying. In India philosophy has been the key p
the understanding of concrete life, not a mere intellectual exercise 10
abstract thought. iae

In Jagdish Chandra Bose (1858-1937) can be seen a remarkal
Indian response to Western impact. Bose, a pioneer of modern Indian
science, combined ancient Indian introspective methods with modern
experimental methods to demonstrate “the universal po A
matter” or “the omnipresence of Life in Matter.” He demonstrate 3
laboratory tests, using special scientific instruments of extreme E
and precision, that plants possessed life. Modern science thus as

the ancient upanishadic truth that the entire universe is born of a T
_ force and is quivering with a touch of animation. His work represe
iph of spirituality over extreme materialism.

at

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

In 1897, two disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda
(1863-1902) and Swami Brahmananda (1863-1922), founded the
Ramakrishna Mission with its headquarters at Belur near Calcutta.
Whilst Brahmananda remained in India as head of the organization,
Vivekananda pioneered the establishment of Ramakrishna Missions in
America and other Western countries. However, when Vivekananda
first visited the United States in 1893 to attend the World-Parliament
of Religions at Chicago, he did not come as a missionary of the
Ramakrishna cult but as an exponent of Vedanta philosophy. Hence
Vedanta philosophy got further circulation before the Ramakrishna
movement gained currency. In any case, the distinction between the
two is small.

Vivekananda boldly proclaimed that Vedanta was destined to be the
religion of mankind. He received a spontaneous ovation at the Chicago
meeting when he gave his remarkable presentation of the Hindu religion.
He won popular recognition abroad for India’s ancient civilization, for
the Vedanta philosophy, and for India’s newborn claim to nationhood.
Such was the impact of his personality that wherever he went, whether
in Europe, China, or Egypt, he created a minor sensation; in America
he was called the “cyclonic Hindu.”

The influence of Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Missions, through
their maths in almost every Western capital, is considerable. Although
essentially Hindu, they advocate the oneness of all religions and the
mee of “one goal of the many paths.” This extreme religious tolerance
ie Snes appeal to many in the West. There are some, however, who

a deeper challenge in this “live and let live” approach.

How DEEPLY INDIAN ideas have impressed the Western mind through
fosophy can be gauged by the great popularity of the works of J.
ishnamurti (1895— ), who was acclaimed in his youth as “Messiah.”
€ central theme of Krishnamurti’s teaching is that it is through self-
Owledge that man comes to eternal reality.

Fi € term Theosophy is a translation ofthe Sanskrit term, Brahmavidya.

Ust used in the third century by the Greek philosopher, Tamblichus, it
meant the inner knowledge concerning the things of God. In its modern

‘ense, Theosophy was a movement founded by Madame H. P. Blavatsky

(Busy =

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in 1875 in New York. The Theosophical Society is a nonsectarian body
whose creed is that there is no religion higher than truth. It seeks to form
a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction
of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour; to encourage the study of comparative
religion, philosophy, and science; and to investigate unexplained |
nature and the powers latent in man.

Theosophy, signifying a knowledge of Brahman or the Absolute,
closely follows the concepts propounded by the Upanishads and Indian
philosophies. For example, the doctrine of the one transcendent, eternal,
all pervading, all sustaining, self-existent life, and of the reincarnation
and liberation of soul bear deep affinity to Hindu ideas. Theosophists
regard India as the guardian of secret wisdom and esoteric science, and
the chief exponent of the transcendent unity of all religions.

In addition to the influence of the Theosophical Society in the
West, Theosophy has also had a notable impact in the countries to the
east of India. In Indonesia, for instance, early nationalism came under
Theosophist influence through Taman Siswa, literally garden of pupils,
and Sukarno at one time subscribed to Theosophy. Madame Blavatsky
founded a branch of the Theosophical Society in Java in 1883; by 1910
it had a membership of over two thousand, about half of which were
Europeans, and the rest Indonesians and Chinese. The Theosophical
movement in Indonesia also ran its own schools, called the Arjuna
Schools.

Yoga, which seeks to join the unenlightened nature of man © Be
enlightened and divine part of himself through knowledge and discipline
of mind and body, is becoming increasingly popular in the West. the
Western world is best acquainted with Hatha-yoga (the yoga of a
control), as is indicated by a flood of publications on the subject and ei
rapidly growing number of Yoga schools. Paul Brunton’s The Hid %
Teaching Beyond Yoga, published in 1941, has gone through a
printings. The first official recognition by a British local authority W $
_ given recently when the Birmingham City Council introduced cours
in Yoga, for which there had been a growing demand for some eos
Reporting on the Birmingham Yoga Schools, the Times (London) on ie
F ary 1965 observed: “The attractions are often relaxation and gen ‘
and the air of Oriental mystery which surrounds the classes-

aws of

716

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

Jong list of pleasures from which a full time yogi should abstain seem
not to be observed by night school students. Many of them say, they
would not want to ‘go in any deeper,’ but in subtle ways the classes have
changed some of their beliefs.”

The father of the Yoga philosophy, Patanjali, defined it as “restraining
the mind-stuff from taking various forms.” Based on psychological
conception by the proper training of mind, Yoga aims to reach the higher
levels of consciousness. It is a method of finding things out for oneself
rather than a preconceived metaphysical theory of reality or of universe.
Yoga aims at removing suffering, sin, and all imperfections caused by
avidya (ignorance), egoism, attachment, aversion, and clinging to life,
which belie the true nature of self. By eliminating these obstacles through
knowledge or illumination, and by controlling the flow of ideas in one’s
mind, one can become a true man. It is only natural that such a widely
known system should be wrongly interpreted and even denounced at
times for its quaint practices. Apparently its influence perturbed a widely
read naturalized British writer so deeply that he venomously attacked
Indian thought, about which he knew, by his own confession, but little,
and reiterated the prejudices of those who are convinced that Western
philosophies are the unfailing standards of all truth.

The growing influence of Indian thought in recent years has indeed
ftightened some Western religious writers, such as Hendrik Kraemer
U Vorld Cultures and World Religions), who have designated it as the
Eastern invasion of the West.” Perhaps excessive anxiety to defend the
Western Christian tradition may have led Kraemer to over-rate Indian
on But there are many European scholars who have S
admirari ought in unmistakable terms. Whether response or resista! :
Fe on or denunciation, all are equally indicative of impact an

mulus,

a eed way the migration of Indian labour to Ue rat

cena n another link between India and the gontin wor! a =

ritish ne to move to other countries in 1830, mainly eae

Possible a ao This made the abolition of slavery nee E

introduced 1 ra laters when h 5 Honea ; a ees or

voluntary S the British Empire. Indian migration; ; se
» has possibly been second only to that of the Europe

717

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Whilst it does not come anywhere near the combined Migration of
all the European countries, it exceeds—in absolute numbers, not in
the proportion of population—the recorded overseas migration of any
single country. According to one estimate, twenty-eight million Indians
migrated to various countries between 1834 and 1932. Today there are
said to be more than four million Indians in forty countries all over the
globe, in some of which they form a majority, such as British Guiana,
Fiji, and Mauritius. In some they constitute strong minorities; in Britain,
a recent estimate would show them to be over forty thousand. Their
economic and political importance is considerable, and there must also
be a significant cultural impact.

An important social survey, carried out in Britain about ten years
ago, produced some surprising results. A representative sample of five
thousand persons, of both sexes and all ages and classes, was chosen
for questioning. Nearly a quarter of the population of England did not
consider that they belonged to any religion or denomination. About half
the population—forty-seven per cent—expressed a positive belief in a
future life; a third—thirty per cent—stated that they were uncertain.
What is most significant, however, is that a quarter of all those who
professed belief in an after-life—an eighth of the population—did not
believe that this after-life would be eternal; eleven per cent of the believers
actually declared their faith in transmigration. This was “perhaps the pee
surprising single piece of information to be derived from this research. ”
Belief in reincarnation is a typically Indian doctrine and is contrary t°
the creeds of Europe and western Asia.

POLITICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY it was inevitable that there should
have been some reaction in Europe against an invasion of Indian hee
Reaction against alien ideas appears to be a common human irrationà n
Certainly, the nature of political relationships and nationalistic Piy
understandably played a significant role. European nations Oe sie
were more receptive to Indian ideas during the early period © a
relationship which was based on relative equality. But as ee 5
olitical, technological and economic supremacy over Asia came t
ed, an attitude of superiority crept into the Europe
ly the British—outlook. The influence of political relati

a 718

n—an
onship®

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

on cultural intercourse is further illustrated by the fact that, once the
British became overlords of I ndia, Indian learning drew more sympathetic
and imaginative understanding from other European countries than it
did from the British.

The discovery of Indian thought by European scholars in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to an outburst of admiration and
enthusiasm, mainly because they felt that Indian thought filled a need
in their European culture. Neither Christianity nor the classical cultures
of Greece and Rome were considered satisfactory any more and the
European intelligentsia sought to apply the new knowledge, brought in
increasingly by Indologists, to their own spiritual preoccupations. Upon
closer examination of Indian thought, whilst some of the deeper ideas
were revealed, illusions were exposed. Even some admirers became critical
and sceptical. Both reactions were based on insufficient knowledge.
Goethe himself moved from one opinion to the other, although he
continually acknowledged the tremendous stimulus of Indian thought.
This conflicting approach is in fact characteristic of the modern European
attitude towards India. Although in recent years some European writers
have made a thorough and understanding study of Indian thought, India
still conjures up conflicting images in Western minds, and evokes a
variety of responses ranging from Kipling’s caricatures to Max Miiller’s
the very paradise on earth.”

lt is significant that, with notable exceptions, India appears to have
been most attractive to those Europeans who did not visit the country
ma In other words, Indian thought made a better impact on the

uropean mind than did contemporary Indians. .
ee it was uneven, intermittent, and in many see eae
E eta pen US a miz hove ee ne Tadia
is niger = all the European nations Germanys Pe ee,
the Gere nthusiastic and open-hearted. Perhaps the a ee ae
See fe and the Indian mind, in the sense chat a fers ;
a at pe abstract speculation, and pantheism, an nee
onthe ue formlessness, inwardness, and a ae
Von Schro oe German understanding of Indian = D T
Antiquity: aoe says: “The Indians are the nation of roma ne

: The Germans are the romanticists of modern times. e even

719

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

concludes that all the romantic minds of the West turn towards India
because of the deep-rooted similarity between romanticism in Europe
and, what he considers to be, romanticism in India. Sentimentality
and feeling for nature are common to both German and Indian poetry,
whereas they are foreign, for instance, to Hebrew or Greek poetry. The
similarity between the two peoples is further illustrated, in a different
area, by the Indian tendency to work out scientific systems; India was
the nation of scholars of antiquity, in the same way as the Germans are
the nation of scholars of the modern times.

Even if suggestions of parallels between the Germans and Indians
are discounted as being over emphasized, if not altogether misleading,
it cannot be denied that German response to Indian literature and
philosophy was prompt and profuse, which must have been considerably
conditioned by some intrinsic appeal of Indian thought for the German
mind.

The French were not amongst the first Europeans to come into contact
with India. But, as soon as French travellers, who are known for their
literary taste, visited India and reported on their travels, French literary
circles responded enthusiastically. French interest in Indian studies,
which was much anterior to that of the English, was distinctive for its
imaginative understanding of Indian literature and thought. There have
been many eminent French Indologists, and both the volume and quality
of French contributions to Indian studies are remarkable. In fact it g
matter of some surprise that Indologists working in the English speaking
world have not made full use of these French contributions. z

‘The British response to Indian learning was most mixed. Whilst ag
remained a trying political problem, she was a symbol of British powe
and achievement, as well as a major source of her economic Woe
India as a national political problem required collective E
` intellectual response was a personal matter. Individual thinkers stu

India closely and whilst some were fascinated, others were repelle a
both cases, Indian ideas stimulated British imagination and ae ee
influence in a variety of ways, which at times were conflicting: o ae dia
al expedience—for instance the need to justify domination © a
Bri tish ublic—British administrators were compelled to mer r
ath s degenerate and decadent. Even the Utilitarians,

720

WESTERN RESPONSE TO MODERN INDIA

advocated liberty and democracy, supported the continued rule of the
Company 50 that Indian society could be rejuvenated.

Another barrier between Indian and British cultural co-operation
was the Englishmen working in India. The early administrators were
indifferent to anything except trade and profits; the later ones, after
1830, suffered from a sense of cultural inferiority, which, compounded
with political superiority, manifested itself in self-righteousness,

rejudices, and arrogance. They often came to India for only a few years,
invariably lived an exclusive life, and returned home to condemn Indian
culture and traditions with gusto. Their callous indifference to Indian
art is well reflected by the fact that the liberal William Bentinck, who
initiated social reforms in India, seriously considered the possibility of
dismantling the Taj Mahal and selling the marble to meet the shortage
of money in the Company’s treasury. He was prevented because “the
test auction of materials from the Agra palace proved unsatisfactory.”
Fed on Macaulay, Mutiny, and Kipling, the English, no wonder, did
not appreciate India.

In spite of these handicaps, Indian literature captured the imagination
of a few British scholars and writers. This unknown land of romantic
dynasties, luxury and exotic beauty, and mystic religions and developed
philosophies became a source of inspiration for romantic literature.
Indian peoples, scenery, costumes, courts, religious ceremonies, folk
Songs, tiger hunts, hermits, and buildings presented a kind of fairy tale
picture, which increasingly captured popular interest.

Itis a pity that Europeans did not press on with their advantage and
make better use of Indian knowledge. If Indian philosophy, literature,
ose received a fuller and less inhibited appreciation in ee
soins oan ofall inclusive civilization or Europea E = n

a Bae than a mere technological and industrial revo. a x eee

aie > However, a British-Indian civil a a se et
Annee that the British rulers oi In a ee coe
of Hindy 4 cultural intercourse, for they had failed to ac’ ee Rae
: nd European learning’ or to give any scope to the tec

s
and knowledge inherent among the people.”*

721

Chapter VII

INDIAN RESPONSE TO
MODERN EUROPE

WHILST EUROPE SOUGHT ancient Indian learning, India focused her
attention on modern European knowledge. In this cultural encounter,
initiative remained for the most part with Europe, for she was a young
developing society with an inquisitive mind and the material resources to
obtain easy access to what she fancied. In contrast, Indians even if they
knew what they needed, could not get at it at will. As a result, Europe
absorbed Indian wisdom within a much shorter period than Indians
took to gain Western knowledge. Indeed, some Western scientific
theory and technological know-how has only been acquired since Indian
independence.

Once the initial period of romanticism and disillusionment had
been overcome, and the Indo-British political relationship was firmly
established, a new phase of cultural interaction between India and
the West began. With the increasing Western domination of Asia
and the advance in science and technology, the process of cultural
exchange gained speed and momentum. The traffic of people and ideas
between India and Europe grew correspondingly, and numerous Indian
intellectuals, students, officials, soldiers, tourists, princes, and merchants
began to visit Britain and Europe. The cultural encounter between India
and modern Europe hardly has a parallel in history.

Western tradition is a highly generalized, extremely vague, and ill-
defined concept that is often stretched to include or exclude anything

4 - 722

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

at will to suit the purpose in hand. It is not a unitary system of thought,
nor has it an unbroken historical continuity. There are deep controversies
gs to its exact nature and value, and it is a complex of diverse, even
contradictory, ideologies and traditions. For instance, it is equally proud
of the imprints of early Greek and Christian traditions which were
relentlessly opposed to each other.

Even a casual investigation reveals the inherent contradictions of
Western tradition. Western tradition is often characterized as one of
material progress and scientific advancement, yet Christian mystical
thought is superbly well developed, and until recently science was
positively denounced in the Christian West. In most respects scientific
inquiry was much more highly developed in the Hellenistic period than
it was in mediaeval Europe. In fact, exactly why Hellenistic science
declined needs an explanation. Again, it is repeatedly pointed out that
Western tradition stems from the enlargement of individual liberties,
and that individual liberty is the essence of Western civilization.
Some Western scholars go much farther and assert that the West has
tegarded “a denial of freedom as a denial of the value of the individual
and therefore as a sin against the soul of man.” Yet it is not possible
to completely ignore the Western institutions of slavery, feudalism,
colonialism and imperialism, and racism. Western liberalism, of which
the West can be justly proud, was born in the seventeenth century as
à reaction against the violence and hatred that had prevailed during
the almost unbelievably atrocious religious wars. But even since
eee has not remained unchallenged a pee
Dle ee and suppression of freedom pee tan fae ae 4
i i as roken trend of a Western tradition at 5 ae ae,
Nero: Nes see of world history, including Alexan er, Pe pe
s z he fe Hitler, and Mussolini. This fact Bee eet ies
diane : ictators and conquerors are contraste x Nees pe a

ae Olence and peace, such as Jesus Christ, eeu é a
ee Mataia Guat wi A
amongst W. e divine right of kings found far T A ce

me oo monarchs—the Ge o w
ie ee Peach Bourbon aan ae but this onl
ern world has continuously fought for liberty, but y

Ci

723

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

serves to illustrate the existence of anti-freedom forces and a totalitarian
current in Western tradition.

Again, it cannot be claimed, as is often done, that the rise of
Christianity did much to improve the position of the individual, for
religious persecution has been a common feature of Western Christianity,
The once persecuted Christians, having gained power, themselves became
persecutors; Caesar was more, not less, divine when he became the sword
of Christianity. The terrible struggles between Church and State were
not fought for individual, or even religious, freedom; the Church sought
to compel the secular power to serve its own purposes. Any individual
who did not subscribe to the Church’s belief was at once denounced as a
heretic. Crusades and religious wars of extermination were often as bloody
as Hitler's slaughter of the Jews and Gypsies. The Church even persecuted
the mediaeval minstrels and Gypsies because they loved freedom. Once
the so-called heretics came to power they were no less tyrannical and no
more tolerant than their erstwhile persecutors. It was Calvin, an apostle
of Protestantism, who managed to bring secular and religious life under
a single authority, and thus to direct thought and action alike by “the
rule of the saints.” His was the first monolithic party of the Western
civilization, from which all totalitarian states have learned. “Toleration,
when it came did not spring from deep-rooted conviction; it originated
in the boredom and weariness of the mass of ordinary men with the
conflict of totalitarian rulers who had struggled to tear Europe apart."

Christianity, which is in practice a unique combination of beliefs and
clergy, whilst owing its religion to Jesus and his early Asian disciples,
is, in strict ecclesiastical hierarchy, an essentially Western movement.’
Whatever may have been the value of the Church in religious practice,
it has inhibited freedom of thought and individual liberty by relentlessly
enforcing its presuppositions as eternal truths. It is the Church which

sets moral standards for the individual and prescribes his belief. The
organization of the Church is unparalleled in history. No federation
of states has been as comprehensive and universal in taking hold of the
minds of people, and no monarch or dictator has been given the complete
and willing obedience of such a wide and vast body of peoples as has the
Church. The Islamic Caliphate and Buddhist monasticism were, in this
respect, no way comparable to the Christian Church. The former was

724

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

too often divided, and was always too temporal to command any control
of minds, and eventually was abolished. The Buddhist Sangha was, at
best, @ collection of autonomous monasteries.

Communism, with all its scientific reason, humanism, and economic
equality, is essentially a totalitarian doctrine, negating individual liberty,
and is a typical, almost exclusive, Western concept. Communism stresses
the primacy of reason, but, like a missionary religion, it has a sense of its
own infallibility and an obligation to world-wide expansion. Its greatest
exponents have mainly been Western or Western-trained.

Even British thought, which was more directly and closely linked
with India than that of other European countries, had its own inner
conflicts and contradictions in respect to India, ranging from Edmund
Burke’s liberalism and John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism to John Bright's
radicalism. Burke desired India to stay Indian; in fact, he was rather
anxious to reform the disreputable English trustees in India. He strongly
condemned the facile and much used aspersion of “Oriental Despotism”
and warned his countrymen against passing judgement upon a people, for
ages civilized and cultivated, who formed their laws and institutions prior
to “our insect origins of yesterday.” The Utilitarians and Evangelicals, on
the contrary, saw little good in Indian society and desired to Westernize
it completely by denying individual liberty to the Indian. The Utilitarians,
whilst not denying the abstract right to liberty, could see no alternative to
abenevolent British despotism in India, conducted from London. India
“posed Utilitarianism’s paradox between its principle of liberty and that
ofauthority. The Evangelicals’ viewpoint was religious, they believed that
an through Christianity could temporal welfare and spiritual salvation
eee Hence, they looked upon the British en

ee = of punishment for Indian paganism, and an opp y
redeem themselves from their depraved system of superstition.
are ae by Western clergy. If $ os a oie
ce: gon and a practical basis for British imperi
Belicalism gave it a sense of urgency and intense zeal.
ndia, and the Indian response, consequently, was à
“stern tradition itself.

725

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

‘The Portuguese were the first European power to expand into India,
‘Their activities were essentially an extension of the Christian crusade
against Islam, and a search for trade. Although they were the last of
the colonial powers to leave Indian territory (in 1961), their imprint on
Indian culture is negligible.

Whilst the seventeenth century marked the zenith of India’s mediaeval
glory, the eighteenth century was a spectacle of corruption, misery, and
chaos. ‘The glory of the Mughals had vanished, life had become insecure,
the nobility was deceitful and oppressive and intellectual curiosity had
given way to superstitious beliefs. The country was in a state of military
and political helplessness. In this atmosphere, literature, art, and
culture could barely survive. The malaise of India was aggravated in full
measure by the East India Company with its indiscriminate exploitation,
corruption, and bribery.

In contrast, Europe was robust and vigorous. This was the Age of
Enlightenment, and Europeans had gone through a process of rebirth
during which religion was detached from state, alchemy from science,
theology from philosophy, and divinity from art. A Western scholar
recently asserted that “Western science and philosophy as they have
developed in the last three or four centuries, are the most sustained,
comprehensive, and rigorous attempt ever made by man to understand
himself and his environment, physical and social...”2 Even if the
achievement of the modern West is not as unprecedented as is claimed,
there can be little doubt that the cultural vitality, the variety, and the
spirit of scientific inquiry displayed by Europeans in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries mark the rise of a civilization more dynamic than
anything seen in the West since Alexandria’s heyday. Thus, the impact
of Western culture on India was that of a dynamic society on a static
one. It is a cruel irony of history that whilst two major revolutions—the
French and the American—upholding the human rights to liberty and
equality were taking place in the West, India was in the throes of losing
her own freedom to Western mercantile imperialism.

‘The West provided India with the necessary impetus for a real stock
taking and reform. The introduction of Western culture, education,
and scientific techniques gave traditional Indian life a jolt, shocking
Indians into a new awareness and Vitality in thought and action. Long

726

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

dormant intellectual impulses emerged and a new Indian spirit was
porn. During the period of Western supremacy in India, the conflict
of two civilizations certainly produced unrest, but it also sustained and
stimulated intellectual life.

Western influences became effective in India mainly through the
British, who were the pioneers of a new technological and industrial
civilization. They represented a new historic force which was later to
change the world, and thus were the forerunners of change and revolution.
Although Indian and Western civilizations were at approximately the
same level at the time, they were tending in different directions: the
former was declining, the latter progressing. India lost to Europe because
it lacked political organization, including a central government, and a
progressive outlook.

The British domination of India has been described as a “political and
economic misfortune,” and in some respects it was indeed enervating and
devitalizing. Dadabhai Naoroji, whilst pointing out the many blessings
of law and order it had conferred on India, called the despotic system
of government in British India “un-British,” for it was as destructive to
British ideals and honour as it was to India. In 1937, a distinguished
British civil servant, G. T. Garratt, declared that the period of Indo-
British civilization of the previous one hundred and fifty years had
been most disappointing, and “in some ways the most sterile in Indian
history.” This must come as a shock not only to those who have been
brought up to believe in British virtue but also to those who do not take an
Uncritical view of British colonialism. Garratt was no Indian nationalist
charged with exaggerated patriotism. He had scrupulously analyzed
2 eee and advanced some impressive arguments an ules
could oe Peneha aa : eves DELE 5 dwell

ete upon ae bufas ee sone ee a ie eee. there can

Thee ones and demerits of British co a E ee

Society th t at British impact led to such a transtor oe
at Indians, in retrospect, may even be thankful for wha

ritish did, regardless of what they did not ie
om any India had received

a different religion but also
“ent outlook on life, and añ economic system which was the result of

727

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

new scientific and technological advances. They had firm political values,
well-developed cultural traditions, and superior technical skills. Above
all, their organization in all respects—military, religious, economic, and
political—was remarkable and iron-cast. Whilst India has always held
her own in the realm of thought, broadly speaking, organization and
co-ordination have never been her strong points. Indeed, in India, as
in no other civilization, except with doubtful and partial exceptions in
ancient Greece and modern France, extreme intellectual individualism
has been a dominant, zealously guarded characteristic. Complete freedom
of individual thought, academic disputes, and philosophical debates led to
an enriched Indian cultural heritage. But individualism caused frequent
clashes, frustration, and indifference in political and military spheres. No
serious attempt was ever made by Indian states to direct and superintend
the dissemination of Indian culture. It is indeed surprising that whilst
intellectually so independent and individualistic, Indians followed for
centuries a caste system almost unparalleled in its rigidity. That they were
unable to suppress its ugly features, and paid for it heavily in terms of
social suffering and cultural decline, would further emphasize the Indian
lack of collective discipline and organization.

It is not a rarity that intellectual perseverance and thoroughness of
analysis add to the infirmity, rather than to the clarity, of conclusions.
Having searched into all aspects of a problem, Indians do riot necessarily
feel the need to opt for one view or the other. They are quite content
to accept the reality of contradictions in a given situation, a quality
which baffles most people but is easily acceptable to the Indian mind.
Indians accept reality as it is, which may or may not be unitary, and
their decisions and beliefs are generally tentative, for the finite mind
cannot always comprehend totality. Contradiction, not compromise,
has been the keynote of Indian intellectual and political strengths and
weaknesses, and even conditions her present-day revolution. Compulsion
to make a firm choice in cases of conflicting views often results in merely
‘selecting a preference for the one against the other. There is no fervour
of conviction in it. Whenever there is fervour in Indian convictions it
is generally emotional and indecisive; belief based on pure emotion is
passion, not conviction.

Consequently, upon being confronted with British power, India

728

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

could neither penetrate the steel ring of British organization nor could
she absorb their culture into her own pattern. Intellectually indifferent,
spiritually subdued, and physically weak at the time, Indians found an
adjustment with the newcomers not only practical but essential.

JNpIAN RESPONSE TO Western impact was first noticed in religion.
Indians were not unfamiliar with Christianity, nor were they ill-disposed
towards it. Christianity dated to the first century A.D. in India, long before
Britain had even acquired the necessary degree of cultural sophistication
tobe able to appreciate Christian doctrines. Whilst Indians were attracted
by the practical ethics of Christianity and the social welfare activities of
Christian missionaries, they were repelled by their excessive zeal, their
religious arrogance, and their harsh criticism of Indian religious practices
and social customs. Indians could not understand the narrowness and
intolerance of the Christians, in marked contrast to India’s inclusive
and tolerant religion. They were prepared to admit Christ as one of
the prophets of God, but not as the only son of God. Despite their
indignation at the new heralds of Christianity, Indians became acutely
conscious of their own inadequacies and intellectual inertia.

Even though Christian missionary activity in India became widespread
during British rule, the East India Company was disinclined to mix trade
and religion. From the beginning it set its face against all missionary
activities, and after 1757 it decided to exclude missionary propaganda
in the territories under its control. However, the Company's attempts
to restrict missionary work within its territory were frustrated in 1808
oy Spencer Perceval, who has been called “the Evangelical Prime
A because of his zeal for Church reform. He was assassinated in
Tan then his efforts, in combination with those ee
gee ee ees had already broken the Company's ;

es. The Charter of 1813 required the East India Congar 2
5 oe eee to travel on its ships, and to admit a British tee
a. By this Act, however, the Companys trade monopoly

abo i 4 a
lished and its commercial opposition to missionaries weakened.

na ission:
_ ny case, the Company had never successfully pa a r n
rk in variou:

activity ;
ae ity in India. Several Christian missions had been at work in vari
s of India for a long time. Catholic missions had been active since

TI

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the arrival of the Portuguese, and in 1780 the Serampore Mission was
established in Bengal. By 1792, the spirit of evangelism had permeated
Protestant churches deeply enough to move the English Baptists into
organizing the first Protestant mission. Three years later the London
Missionary Society was formed, and a powerful evangelical movement
began in Britain, the vibrations of which, under the direction of William
Carey, were felt in British India. Whilst the Company itself, as a
mercantile corporation, could not lend its support to Christian missionary
activity, many individuals in the administration felt deeply convinced of
the need for evangelical work in India, and gave their active cooperation
to the missionaries.

Although the Christian missionaries intensified their activities
under the stimulus of the Act of 1813, they met with only limited
success through conversions. The impact of Christian thought itself
however was considerable, culminating in a revival, reinterpretation,
and reorientation of Indian thought. Just as the impact of Islam had
given encouragement to the Bhakti movement in mediaeval times the
advent of Western civilization caused the growth of numerous reform
movements in modern times.

Bengal, where British power was concentrated at the time, and which
had felt the worst of the East India Company’s early misrule, took the
lead in both cultural and political advances. The earliest stirrings of the
Indian cultural renaissance appeared under the leadership of Raja Ram
Mohan Roy (1772-1833) who made the first organized efforts to adapt
Hinduism to the new situation. He made a clear distinction between
good and bad traditions, and reasserted the wisdom of welcoming a good
concept, regardless of its nationality.

He was a scholar of Sanskrit, Hebrew, Greek, Persian, English, and
Arabic. A devout Hindu inspired by the vedantic philosophy, he was
also deeply influenced by Sufism and was an admirer of Christianity and
Western thought, especially the writings of Montesquieu, Blackstone,
and Bentham. Towards the end of his life, he was also attracted by the
revolutionary movements of America and Europe.

He was perhaps the first earnest modem scholar of comparative religion.
Making a clear distinction between Western virtues and Western failings,
he defended Hinduism. against the attacks of missionaries as stoutly 35

730

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

ae orthodoxy to abandon its ritualistic conventions. He

he challenged tt
kept in close touc

Indian texts in the lig
popes an uncompromising and vehement opponent of idolatry and

of all rituals connected with it. At the age of thirty-one, he published a
hook in Persian, denouncing idolatry and advocating belief in one god
and a universal religion. He conceived the idea of a universal church,
somewhat in the tradition of Akbar’s Din-i-ilahi, combining the best
spiritual traditions of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam and accepting
equally the teachings of all religions. He looked beyond dogma, ritual,
and philosophical dialectics to seek the fundamentals of each faith, and
found them identical.

Although willing to join in Christian worship, Ram Mohan Roy was
an ardent Hindu who found Hinduism’s defence against Christianity in
Vedanta, which supported his ideas on the unity of God, the futility of
idolatry and pilgrimages, and the doctrine of Karma and incarnations.
Tn an exposition on Christianity, The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace
and Happiness, he extolled the ethical teachings of Christ but rejected
the miraculous legends about his life which he said were due to a
misinterpretation on the part of his followers. Moreover, he did not
believe that man could atone for his sins simply by repentance. ‘This was,
in fact, a reply to missionaries rather than a call to Indians. He regarded
a bigoted Christian to be as conceited as a bigoted Hindu, and ignored
both. He accepted the humanism of European thought. Whilst his
denunciation of Hindu orthodoxy antagonized Hindu traditionalists,
Cee approach to Clases doend eS. eee
people f Ssp strong opposition from a superstitious an indiffer :

to aggressive missionaries, and a mercenary government, he
oe his endeavours. As a result he set India on a course of orn
aea which gradually gathered momentum and support, an

T y made it possible for modern India to emerge- att
jae = attempt to bring about harmony between faiths, Roy a e
religion nee Samaj in 1828. Brahmo Samaj was not an ees fee

eee it was based on the vedanta philosophy, Be a *
of ee it derived its inspiration from the ae eC Pea

enth century, Doctrinally somewhat similar to Unitarianism

h with Oriental research and interpreted the ancient
ht of Western doctrines and ideas. Consequently

731

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and attempting to synthesize the cultures of East and West, it encouraged
rationalism and social reform.

Ram Mohan Roy, however, was much more than a religious reformer,
He was a patriot who represented Indian nationalism on the defensive:
its leaders at this stage were cautious, and apprehensive. He commenced
the task of national reconstruction on several fronts with vigour and
industry. In 1823, twelve years before Macaulay wrote his famous minute
on education, Ram Mohan Roy had petitioned the British Government
to introduce English rather than continue traditional Indian education,
A few years earlier he had founded a Hindu college at Calcutta, where
Western learning was taught. Macaulay, who is credited with having
forced the issue in favour of English education, not only followed the
arguments advanced by Ram Mohan Roy, but even borrowed some of
his language.

Roy relentlessly battled the ugly but hallowed custom of sati to save
women from cruel deaths. This custom, for some unknown reason,
increased in Bengal during British expansion. Ram Mohan filed petitions
for its abolition before the British, and ten years later when William
Bentinck did abolish sati, Roy was profoundly moved. When a group of
reactionary Indians petitioned the Privy Council in London to reverse
the abolition, he appeared before the Council personally and successfully
defended Bentinck’s measure. Many sincere leaders before him had
exposed the evils in Indian life and religion, but none had grasped with
as much clarity the passivity which had come to paralyze the Indian mind,
and none had worked with such devotion, perseverance and conviction
to revitalize Indian thinking.

Ram Mohan Roy was received enthusiastically in Europe and
exercised a considerable influence upon liberal Protestants, especially
Unitarians. He went to England ostensibly as the ambassador of the
Mughal king to recover Mughal authority from the British Company.
He did not succeed in his political mission, but he helped to bring India
a good deal closer to the West. During his stay, he met leading British
statesmen, philosophers, and historians, such as Jeremy Bentham and
James Mill. So highly did Bentham hold Ram Mohan Roy in his esteem
that when the Indian scholar arrived in London in April 1831, Bentham
was the first man to call on Roy at the Adelphi Hotel. Bentham was

732

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

cighty-three years of age at the time and fastidious—he refused to see
Mme. de Staal in 1813 because he thought she had nothing of interest to
say. In welcoming Roy at the British Unitarian Association’s reception,
Sir John Bowring placed Ram Mohan in the same class as “a Plato or
a Socrates, a Milton or a Newton.” Bentham even actively agitated to
secure Roy's election to the British Parliament.

The new spirit of humanism and rationalism stimulated Indian
thought and literature enormously. No longer was Indian writing
appended to theology, mythology, and scholasticism. No gods and
goddesses descended from heaven and played a part in human life. Man
now occupied the foremost place, steering his course of life without divine
help. This concept of the world was somewhat similar to that which had
existed in the ancient past, of which only a dim recollection had survived.
Soon new ideas began to fill old patterns and Indian writers and thinkers
were inspired not only by the renewed spirit of humanism but also by
the French revolutionary spirit of liberty and equality.

After the death of Ram Mohan Roy in Bristol in 1833, the Brahmo
Samaj remained the focus of the Hindu renaissance. Debendranath
Tagore (1817-1905), who had been in intimate contact with Roy,
continued the monotheistic tradition. In 1839, he founded the
Tattvabodhi Sabha, which played a significant role in the cultural revival
of India, especially in Bengal. Unlike Ram Mohan, however, his ideas
reflect little Christian influence. In spite of his impressive missionary
“uvity, Debendranath, who became an ascetic, seems to have embraced
ae pr imarily out of an intense spiritual craving, not out of any

ation for social reform.
oe came the dynamic, although somewhaf te
the ste (1838-1884), under whose direction the Bee o
and he en a gathered momentum: His enthusiasm was in en
wd a tremendous influence upon his E l i =
ee Ta philosophy, he was especially attracted n ( a Ae
of the haa own backgorund was vaisnava, and Ram a i
the Samaj cc ay of all religions captured his imagination. Pa a
Ut that oe not merely that there were truths ine ee :
nevertheless. Sions of the world were true. Not a Christian; e wa
a great admirer of Christ. Indeed, his teachings were so

733

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

close to Christianity that at one time his conversion to the Christian
faith was thought imminent. But he was deeply saturated in Hindy
thought and often, especially in his later life, would stress the validity of
many vedantic ideas. He believed that many Hindu rituals and usages
could be reinterpreted and restored with new symbolic meaning to suit
the Brahmo Samaj. Consequently, he retained many Hindu practices in
Brahmo worship but turned to Christianity for ethical guidance. Despite
his mental prowess and unquestionable integrity, clarity or consistency of
thought was not his strong point. In his New Dispensation, published in
1881, he set out to create a third dispensation—the Old Testament being
the first and the New Testament being the second—and declared himself
the centre of it, as Christ was of his dispensation. But immediately he felt
he was a sinner; a slave of Christ, Jeswdasa. He called himself “a child of
Asia” and loudly claimed Christianity to be an Asian religion. He asserted
that Jesus was akin to his Asian nature and ways of thinking, and that
Christianity was more comprehensible to the Asian mind than to the
European. He made a clear distinction between the spirit of Christianity
and the fashions of Western civilization. He was a relentless opponent
of hypocrisy, insisted on social purity and upright individual conduct,
and preached his views throughout India with unsparing energy. In some
ways he was ahead of his times. He was the first Brahmo Samaj leader to
advocate the welfare and rights of men, to attempt a new interpretation
of history, and to evolve a modern prose style in Bengali. He took radical
positions on social and religious issues which may not have endeared him
to some of his contemporaries but undoubtedly left an impact on them.
After his death, the Brahmo Samaj ceased to be a living force, but by that
time it had served its extremely vital purpose of national awakening.
The Brahmo Samaj was an attempt to achieve a synthesis of East and
West by some educated and restive men of Bengal. It did not become
a mass movement, but impressive leaders gave impetus to a chain 0
religious reforms and social consciousness which gradually bound the
whole country together. Not all of these movements were kindly disposed
towards Western culture, but they all created a new spirit and the ne
of the country began to change. Later religious movements were mainly

concerned with asserting the pure and original form of Hinduism an
returning to it.

734

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

Under the stimulus of renascent Hinduism in Bengal, the Prarthana
Samaj society was founded in Maharastra in 1867. Bengal and Maharastra
had divergent historical experiences during the Mughal period, but they
had much in common in the nineteenth century. Both had for some
time been the scene of European activities and both had developed
the urge to reform traditional society in a reaction against foreign
domination. Eminent persons joined the Prarthana Samaj, such as M.
G. Ranade (1842-1901) and Sir R. G. Bhandarkar; the former being its
most outstanding leader. Somewhat milder in policy than the Brahmo
Samaj, the Prarthana Samaj believed in the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man, but their theism rested largely on ancient Hindu
thought. The Vedas, however, were not their source of inspiration, and
transmigration was left an open question. The Prarthana Samaj opposed
idolatry, child-marriage, prohibition of widow remarriage, and caste,
but membership was not forfeited if these practices were continued.
The Prarthana Samaj did for Maharastra what Brahmo Samaj did for
Bengal.

Through the efforts of these cultural movements, the spread of English
education, the study of Indian culture, and the increasing orderliness
of political organization, there had awakened in India a deep sense of
nationality and cultural pride. The emergent India demanded a more
militant defence of its own inheritance, and the growth of national, as
es to regional, movements. Soon the initiative passed tonswanai
eae Sarasvati (1824-1883), who based'his teachings entirely on
revealed l T primeval scripture of humanity,” which he regarded ae
exposed it = of God. He thought the amorphous nature of Hin a
han D eee weakness, which could be repaired by possessing;

» ~htistianity, a revealed work of unquestionable authority.
a 1824 in Kathiawar in western India, Swami a
E A S in the quest of truth. He began his public lifein 1
indui, ewe lecture tour severely criticizing certain D e

. Sams ` is as those of Christianity and Islam, he oe ie
“Specially E o zie has since been an active movement in Hi >
, tutored į i it scholar, Dayananda
M most a nglish but a profound Sanskrit scholar, Dayananda,

Portant work, the Satyartha Prakash, made a brilliant

Spen
fte

735

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

attempt to discover in the Vedas the bases of the Christian and Muslim
religions. His chief convictions were that there was only one God to be
worshipped, without the aid of idols. The many divine names which
occur in the Vedas were all epithets of the one true God. Many other
Hindu texts were of value but they were not to be followed where they
contradict the Vedas. Swami Dayananda relentlessly opposed priests,
who he believed had caused discord and disunion, in marked contrast
to prophets of other faiths who had attempted to unite humanity. He
emphasized the fundamental purity of Hinduism, as be conceived it,
which was to him the original vedic religion.

Fearless and overpowering, Dayananda aimed at giving self-confidence
back to Hindus, although he ruthlessly denounced the deplorable
practices prevalent in contemporary Hinduism. He asked Hindus to
adopt modern ideas that impressed him, and he introduced militancy into
Hinduism. His strong urge to assert Hindu nationalism found expression
in the Shuddhi movement to take Hindus who had been converted to
Islam or Christianity back into the fold. This was a novel experiment
which was resented by Muslims and Christians. However, belonging to
proseletyzing religions themselves, they really bad no logical argument
against this practice, even if it were a new one for the Hindu.

As there is no sanction in the Vedas for caste and other taboos that
had gripped Hindu society the Arya Sarnaj vigorously advocated drastic
social reform. For example, it spent large sums of money on sacred thread
for millions of untouchables, thus making them equal to other members
of the Hindu society. However successful the Arya Samaj may have been
as a militant organization, its appeal was mainly confined to the Punjab,
chiefly for two reasons. By exclusively emphasizing the Vedas, it ignor g
the rich tradition of Hindu culture which had followed them for over tw0
thousand years. The concept of Arya and Aryavarta, inherent in vedic
supremacy, excluded South India, which has been in many ways the real
repository of Hindu culture in later times.

Swami Dayananda and his followers disclaimed any indebtedness we
Western ideas, but this would appear rather an assertion of national pride
than a statement of fact. A distinctive feature of the Arya Samaj has oa
ts remarkable contribution to the spread of English education, throug ;
its numerous Dayananda Anglo Vedic schools and colleges throughou

736

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

the country- Iris significant that a movement which superficially seemed
inward-looking and which raised the cry of “back to the Vedas” should
have done more than any other single Indian public organization to
spread Western knowledge in India.

Dayananda’s contemporary, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1834—
1886), in preaching selfless devotion to God and seeking self-realization,
approached Muslim and Christian mystics. He emphasized that different
religions are but different paths to reach the one God, and that if one
religion is true, then by the same logic, all other religions are also true.

Ramakrishna, who lived at the temple of Dakshineshwar near Calcutta,
was a poor priest without any formal education. It has been claimed that
what Socrates was to the Greek consciousness Ramakrishna was to the
modern Indian renaissance. Max Müller said that in comparison to
the illiterate Ramakrishna the brightest intellects of Europe were mere
gropers in the dark. In a recent study, Christopher Isherwood has called
Ramakrishna the incarnation of Siva.

Ramakrishna never claimed to be the founder of a new religion. He
simply preached the old religion of India, founded on the Vedas and
the Upanishads, and systematized in later commentaries. He was not
an original thinker in the true sense of the word, but he could recognize
many things, including the divine presence, which others could not. He
aves wrote a philosophical treatise, but his pithy sayings and simple,
commonplace illustrations are marvels of lucid exposition. Not urbane,
A often even devoid of grace, he was utterly genuine, sincere, and

orthright,

ee disciple, Swami Vivekananda, preached the rues of
A eee and to the world in somewhat the Sane manner as ee
eee cine m gospel of Jesus. Whilst Soe Has 7
relying ae eee ace oe a Bata in Eclipse
and philoso h praes TAE es the field of social

thought ae y, as Ram Mohan Roy had onciin the A
to ae Preached the “oneness of all religions,” asking tin us
ice etter Hindus, Muslims to become better Muslims, and
$ ae Tots better Christians. He eee a
ast and me t to Western peoples and provided a bridge between the
est, both of whom needed reform; the former lacked food

737

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and education, the latter, spirituality. Through his forceful and logical
speeches, he established the inherent virtues of the Hindu religion. The
period of apologies was over; his was the voice of the self-confident Hindu
who expounded his faith with the fullest conviction and righteous pride,
Rooted in the past and full of pride in India’s heritage, Vivekananda
was modern in his approach to the problems of life, providing a bridge
between the past of India and her present. He foreshadowed Mahatma
Gandhi in his burning enthusiasm for the uplifting of the masses. He
regarded India, in spite of her degradation, as the home of spiritualism
and enlightenment, but he attacked Indian inertia, disunity, and lack of
national pride. He was impressed with American efficiency and equality,
and British tenacity, law-abidingness, and sense of loyalty. In 1897 he
founded the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur, near Calcutta, and the new
institution adopted a comprehensive programme of social service. It
started schools, colleges, hospitals, orphanages, and libraries, and has
remained a leader in rendering humanitarian services in India.

Although Vivekananda died at the age of thirty-nine, he left a
permanent mark on Indian life and thought. The great national leaders,
such as Gandhi, Tagore, and Nehru, often acknowledged their debt to
him. Towns, streets, bridges, and institutions are named after him in
all corners of India, and it has been said that to understand India an
understanding of Vivekananda is essential.

‘The Theosophical Society moved its headquarters from New York to
India in 1879. At first the Society aimed mainly at the investigation and
propagation of the belief in life beyond death, but later the scope of its
inquiry was broadened considerably. Today it is a blending of the wisdom
of the East and the West. Theosophists, whilst seeking liberation, ay
pledged to lead a life of sacrifice. They are encouraged to act according
to their oft-quoted maxim, “Light on the Path,” and to “try to lift a
little of the heavy Karma of the world.” The members of the Society are
required to lead highly ethical and moral lives and oppose the increasingly
materialistic outlook on life. Religious fanaticism is not allowed and the
followers of any religion can become members, adhering to what is best
in their own religion. a

Ata time when Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam were competing
with each other, this stress on the unity of religions served a very se

738

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

purpose. Although not a mass movement, the Society significantly
affected the outlook of the emerging nation. For a while, at least,
it accommodated the urge of educated Hindus to find a common
denomination for their various sects.

Annie Besant (1847-1933), who came to India in 1893, was the
Society's most forceful leader. She was at one time a British socialist
leader and an atheist. She said that she remembered India from her past
incarnation and looked upon it as her “motherland.” She adopted the
Indian way of life, and translated various important Hindu texts into
English. A persuasive speaker, she advanced the popularity of Hinduism
and Indian culture through her widely attended public lectures. She
took an active part in the Indian national movement and became the
first woman President of the Indian National Congress. However, she
disagreed vigorously with her contemporary Indian nationalism leaders,
Lokamanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi.

Indian Islam also felt the impact of the West, but its response was
somewhat different from that of Hinduism. Whilst many educated
Hindus were eager to reconcile Western ideas to their own inheritance,
Muslims remained markedly disinclined for some time to accept the
Validity of any knowledge not blessed by the Quran. The Muslims refused
‘o give up Persian and Arabic to learn English. Typical of early Muslim
‘sponse was Mirza Abu Talib Khan (1752-1807), who was one of the
ca to visit Europe where he was lionized by English AUSSI.

e Travels of Mirza Talib Khan, he described the peculiarities of
ear customs and the evils of Western materialism, and o
for ieee Muslims to continue to ignore Western learning out ai ze

religion.” In 1835, when Bentinck decreed the introduction of
‘ aie Sees a number of Muslim notables of ae
ae i. the British Government asking them to oe ge F
at th pas a slight on their own learning and feared at It was aim
ç Christianization of India. The centuries’ old rivalry between Islam
. ipatianity also contributed to Indian Islam’s poni RAT
and Mush > Persian was dicarded as the official DS e A 5
and the m courts were abolished, and high positions > z ee
Other rae y were closed to Muslims in the same way # : ak ;
ans. The loss of political ascendancy and the secularization o

739

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

government produced discontent, resentment, and resistance to the West.

Many Muslims even felt, like the Arabian Wahhabis, that British India

was no longer a suitable place for the Muslim community, and some of
the more zealous ones, under the leadership of Sayyid Ahmad of Rae
Bareli, preached the need to emigrate to other Muslim countries. The
inevitable consequence of this self-imposed isolation and resistance to
modernization was that by the middle of the century Muslims were left
well behind the Hindus in progress.

In 1857, the Mughal Empire was irrevocably ended, and with it
Muslim hopes of political supremacy in India. Not only were the Mughals
dislodged but the Muslim political superstructure built upon Indian
society over a period of centuries was shattered.

In 1867, the Muslim intellectuals and nationalist leaders who had
taken a prominent part in the Indian revolt of 1857, set up the Darul-
Ulum at Deoband, professing loyalty to Islamic law and religious
orthodoxy. The Deoband School derived its doctrines from Shah Walli
Allah Dihlawi (1703-1762), who envisaged Islam as an unfinished social
movement begun by Muhammad, and who aimed at purifying the faith.
‘The school made a vigorous and determined effort to resuscitate classical
Islam. It accepted the old order but tried to revive and purify it. The
Deoband School became the most important and respected theological
academy of Muslim India, indeed of the entire Islamic world next to Al
Azhar of Cairo. It produced some brilliant Muslim leaders and developed
a strong tradition of vitality and quality. 3

The first concrete efforts to adapt modern thought to Islamic
culture were made in the second quarter of the nineteenth century at
Delhi, where a group of able men set out to revive Urdu by publishing
Western works in that language. Later, in 1863, under the leadership of
Nawab Abdul Latif some liberal Muslims founded the Muhammadan
Literary Society at Calcutta whose main objective was to emphasize
the increasing importance of Western learning and culture. In tying
to assimilate Western knowledge, leaders of this movement ne
too heavily on the British for support, and primarily attracted e

Muslims. Even theologically the movement distinguished itself !
being thoroughly pro-British. It opposed the popular Wahhabi J A
agitation against the British “infidels” and by this denunciation,

740

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

Society gained the gratitude of both the British Government and the
> : 4
well-to-do Muslims.
Continuing somewhat in the same tradition, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan

(1817-1898) attempted to persuade Muslims to change their religious
outlook and reconcile themselves to the changing environment. Sir Syed,
convinced of the futility of fighting the British, “remained faithful to the
British and helped them by saving the lives of those in danger” during the
revolt of 1857.5 He sought to improve the position of Indian Muslims
through co-operation with the British authorities.

Anxious to draw the Muslims out of their shell of orthodoxy and
to reconcile modern scientific thought with Islam, he actively pursued
a policy of social and educational reform. He pointed out the basic
similarities between Islam and Christianity, attacked the purdah system
which segregated women from men, advocated the emancipation of
women, opposed allegiance to the Turkish Caliphate, and, above all,
advised his fellow Muslims to accept English education. He founded the
Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh in 1877; the College gained university
status and played a vital role in the movement for Pakistan. He published
amulti-volume commentary on the Quran in which he tried to prove that
the teachings of Islam were in complete harmony with modern scientific
theories, and sought to assimilate the best of Western thought into the
Islamic faith. He was consequently severely criticized by the orthodox
ne of the community and his interpretation of Islam has generally

Snored. But his religious writings and advocacy of social reforms
ave made a lasting impression on Indian Islam.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) was also influential in
ue Seas Indian Muslims. Unlike Sir Syed, Azad ae =
eee n ae adversary of the British imperial rule, and sual a
nts A | S National Congress. He wasan a m r ae
oye n Sir Syed and a versatile litterateur, com z a aoe
i eee scientific research. Azad’s conn 2 aaa

y acknowledged as an outstanding contribution to Islamic

studi ae BEIN
tes. Although educated entirely in the orthodox tradition, he imbibed

“spirit of the modern West. He interpreted Jslam as a universal religion
A brilliant theologian,

1
is 3 g embrace the diversity of all creeds. liar a
= 's distinguished by a spirit of free inquiry. His interpretation

741

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

evoked criticism from the orthodox, and admiration from liberal thinkers,
A progressive revolutionary dedicated to true freedom, he is included
amongst the Ulama (learned men) because of his religious learning, in
which he was unsurpassed.°
There was bitter rivalry between Deoband and Aligarh. The
achievement of Pakistan may be regarded as Aligarh’s success, but the
cultural response goes on, and it is yet to be seen which of the two schools
will finally triumph in reconciling Islam to modernity. It seems likely that
the uninhibited cultural response of the Muslims of India and Pakistan
may well proceed along the lines of Deoband, resuscitating the purity of
classical Islam with the assistance of modern concepts and needs. Looking
at what has happened in these two countries since the partition, it would
appear that Islam in Pakistan is primarily a political consideration, whilst
in India it is more concerned with cultural and religious advancement.’
Whilst the Deoband and Aligarh movements represented the two
divergent Muslim responses to Western impact, Muslim response
generally was significantly different from that of the Hindus. The Hindu
reform movements were ruthlessly self-critical, often questioning the very
validity of some of their sacred texts and eager to absorb or adapt Western
knowledge, and all—orthodox and unorthodox—were nationalistic in
varying degrees of intensity. In contrast, the Muslims on the whole were
not so anxious to accept new ideas. Whilst the orthodox movement,
attempting to resuscitate classical Islam, was intensely opposed to British
tule in India, the unorthodox movement, seeking to carve a new image of
Islam, advocated loyalty to British power. The orthodox saw the security
of Islam in a free and united India. The unorthodox, fearful of Hindu
supremacy, eventually sought the partition of the country. In other words,
the cultural and religious response of the Indian Muslim community
to the West was largely conditioned by economic and political factors,
as a result, the orthodox dreaded European Christian domination, the
unorthodox dreaded Indian Hindu domination. 2
‘The British established an orderly and centralised govem
India, although it was unwieldy and extremely bureaucratic. The pau
administration in India, by its very nature, first demolished the traditiom
_ personal rule and later brought about the development of the rule 0
law. In contrast to the older Indian system, the fundamental featur? X

E 742

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

the British administration was its impersonal character, which had its
merits as well as its demerits. The multiplicity of governmental functions
save rise to a highly graded paternalistic bureaucracy which eclipsed the
self-governing village Panchayats and at times discouraged individual
initiative. But a somewhat democratic control served as a continual
reminder of the superior value of parliamentary democracy.

Although independent India has borrowed profusely from other
Western political systems, such as the United States and Ireland, and
is inevitably developing its own body of parliamentary experience,
her political values and institutions are based principally on British
experience. Broadly speaking, Indian political organization is Western
in its aims, assumptions, and techniques. The concepts of human rights
and of human equality, implied in the ideal of democracy, are a Western
legacy. These concepts are so inseparably grafted onto the Indian body-
politic and appear so natural that many scholars have tried to trace their
origins to early India. Democracy is working most satisfactorily in India
today but not in most other countries of Asia and Africa, many of which
were also ruled by the British. These facts lend considerable weight to the
view that democracy was net altogether alien to Indian temperament and
tradition.’ Again, if Indians were borrowing from the British, irrespective
of their own values and national considerations, they would have sought
to set up a typically British, monarchical democracy, but instead they
ae frantically to abolish the princedoms left behind by the British.

itis possible to trace prototypes of some modern political ideas
ancient Indian tradition, such as democracy and individual liberty,
ee to find approximate parallels of such Wer p
ndian ee parliamentary democracy or the cabinet system atever
TE ents there may be, there is no doubt that imcoptent poy
he aoe and institutions are of Western es ae
€rvice, was = a service, now called due Indian ae z
€ cient, Ae h y built up during the British ye w e an
Titicized PR impersonal and Buxeacraae ae > ne
ination iad a of recruitment was rep a a Ai Pa
rience, re 5 the service acquired a unique repu a =

che oe evotion to duty. The core of ms penuice

cers, modern variants of Asoka’s Rajukas, whose duties

in
iti

743

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

were, similarly, to collect revenue and keep peace. Many members of
the I.C.S. became deeply interested in historical research, and much of
Indian historiography was pioneered by these administrators.’

More important, however, was the British impact on law, which has
been described as the finest and the most abiding British contribution
to India. Before the British period, both Hindus and Muslims merely
applied, at best, the sacred law and, at worst, the will of the ruler; often
there were different laws for different regions and castes. A Brahman
could sometimes go free, or escape with relatively light punishment,
where a sudra incurred heavy penalties for the same offence; often the
former could not be punished on the evidence of the latter. In many cases
Muslim law was based on religious partisanship and privileged birth. The
Mughal Emperor regarded himself as the earthly Shadow of God and
the source of all law and justice. The British made the law applicable to
all alike, and detached it from religion.

Neither in Hindu nor Muslim India was there a law-making body.
The former relied on ancient codes, as interpreted by the learned
Brahmans, to regulate life and society. For the Muslim, Prophet
Muhammad had revealed once and for all the divine law which was
above modification. Islamic law, derived from the Quran and the Hadith,
was all comprehensive, compulsorily regulating the public and private
life of society and the individual. Thus, law was an appendix to religion
until British impact liberated it and made it an instrument of social
advancement. It was this changed character in Indian legal attitudes au
made it possible for free India to enact laws abolishing untouchability,
unequal status of women, and other social evils. i

It must, however, be pointed out that law did not become fully
independent of faith. During the British period it remained largely
restricted by firm religious conventions and susceptibilities, especially
in the social sphere. Even in India today the social life of Muslims
regulated by law based on Islamic beliefs; for instance, their marriage
customs and property and inheritance rules are yet to be secularized-

With this new legal system and the monolithic administration, eae
a complicated structure of high and low courts, giving rise to ligger
often unnecessary and always prolonged. A poor man found jusi
_ remote and beyond his reach, for it became expensive and too technic®™

744

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

What was previously “known” locally now had to be “proven” in distant
courts, through a tedious procedure and an often unfamiliar law. The
tawyer, with his skill to convince the judge of the validity of evidence but
not necessarily of the actuality of crime, assumed paramount importance.
There developed a long hierarchy of judicial officials whose ranks had
first to be penetrated before the case could be heard. The familiar and
ancient system of the Panchayati Raj was suppressed. Whilst some of
these undesirable features were inherent in the system, many were the
result of misguided and ill-controlled practice.

Pre-British Indians were not litigious. Numerous authorities of the
contemporary scene have amply testified to the general truthfulness and
honesty of Indians, and to the integrity of Indian merchants. Typical
was the comment made in 1852 by Sir Erskine Perry, who had been
the Chief Justice of Bombay, that “the sanctity of mercantile books was
such that in the Native Courts of justice, the production of the books
was quite conclusive as to the veracity of any transaction in dispute.”
Similarly, Colonel Sleeman reported that he had witnessed innumerable
cases in which a man’s property, liberty, and life had depended on his
telling a lie, and he had refused to do so.

Whilst the British impact discouraged economic progress it proved
beneficial in social life, despite hesitant and uncertain policy. The
Prohibition of sati, the abolition of child-marriage, and the undermining
of caste or sex distinctions were commendable measures which, if taken
ee logical end, could have purged India of its social evils long before

actments of independent India.
a ace consequences of British rule, looking at both nag
of British z es, leave much to be desired. kank Ep F an
Ourishing ee was not backward for the a an : n a 2
conomie ey eae in silk, cotton, brocade, s n an eee
ndian tural a ae bene leg eee P nea
titain, This tr aie Was transformed to suit the new a = pees?
ife, the ae Be coe led to drastic changes in z n i A
illage commu: undamental of which was the an 7 a
*Sticulture. ae Structure, partly DE result of the Bey o rare
Periog, RR ritish Indian agriculture g by a sap :
> Tich, and well provided for by widespread irrigation systems

e

745

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

which had a history stretching back to pre-Mauryan days. The entire

anks, and
dams, constructed by the state at prodigious expense. Bernier marvelled

a, and in
1800, Francis Buchanan, who travelled extensively in India between 1800

country was carved by an extraordinary labyrinth of canals, t
at the extent and size of the engineering works he saw in Indi

and 1810 collecting agricultural data for the British Government, saw
several large reservoirs which were still functioning."

Indian manufacturing skills and economics were well advanced;
spinning and weaving were national industries. Indian industry suffered
severely because of the partisan and protective policy favouring British
manufactured goods. Indian textiles, ivory works, brassware, gold and
silver, filigree and luxury goods, which were once famous abroad, gradually
fell into disuse, reducing millions of the artisan class to unemployment,
poverty, and many to death. Vast numbers of these displaced artisans were
forced to go back to their villages to live on the already fully occupied
land. ‘The crisis in industry led to a crisis in agriculture. Land holdings
became smaller, the number of landless labourers increased, and villages
became overcrowded. Poverty thus multiplied, famines became common,
and rural India became progressively more ruralized.

Famines were not unknown in Indian history but the frequency
and intensity with which they occurred during the British period were
unprecedented and disconcerting. It has been estimated that in earlier
times a major famine occurred, on an average, once in fifty years, and that
between the eleventh and the seventeenth centuries, there were fourteen
famines, almost all of which were confined to small local areas. But, from
1765, when the British took over Bengal, to 1858, when they quelled
India’s first major revolt, twelve famines and four “severe scarcities
occurred. This frequency increased in the latter part of the nineteenth
century. Although there is no accurate record, a conservative estim z 3
suggests that in the nineteenth century alone more than twenty-one v
people died of starvation. In 1943, four years before British withdraw:
from India, more than three million people perished in the BER
Famine. It is significant that those parts of India which had been longes
under British rule were the poorest at the time of Indian Independent”

Although India remained predominantly agricultural, the inflo
of British capital, the development of a modern banking ™*

746

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

ons systems, the establishment of textile, jute, sugar, and

communicati
ies, and the European demand for tea and coffee led to the

cement factor

beginnings of i
until the withdrawal of British power. Towards the latter part of British

ndustrialization. However, it remained extremely limited

rule, the changed nature of the British economy and the demands of
war rendered Indian industrial development a little more necessary, and
after the British industrial revolution had reached the height of safety, it
not only allowed but even required Indian small-scale industrialization
incertain specified spheres.

The growth of modern commerce and industry brought urbanization.
Old towns, located in religious, political, or trading centres, were now
replaced by large metropolitan cities, such as Bombay, Madras, and
Calcutta, and by purely industrial towns, like Ahmadabad. The densely
populated cities were an inevitable source of slums, but they also became
dynamic political, cultural, and economic centres of a type unknown
in India before. The cities and traditions of civic life later played an
important role in developing the national consciousness and progressive
aspirations of India, as they had done elsewhere. Rome introduced the
city into most of continental Europe, and with the city came citizenship
and the civic tradition, the greatest contribution of Mediterranean
culture. When Rome declined, the Romanized cities upheld the
Roman tradition. Later, the rise of the mediaeval city in Europe led to
far-reaching changes in the intellectual life of Western society. In India,
"rbanization attracted landless labour from the village, which weakened
the joint family system and the traditional social structure.
ce complex of new occupations could not be paroma
T caste system. Industrialization, secular ee ae
against th means of transportation and come ae ee te
cn ony 5 institution of caste: Untouchability and caste Seen j

A ones in a small village community where erie oe
not Visible aoe Sord of peepee ce ae a modern
whan = nor was it possible to follow all the a 2 rae oe

Nowled eee ane need (oe ee Ee by national
lea ar 3 o the irreligious character of caste, and crusa es 7 cee
struc È Pecially Mahatma Gandhi, shook the foundations of the

: Consequently, when India became independent, there were,

747

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

except for the inevitable orthodox, no mental reservations against the
abolition of caste.

During the British period, India developed considerable interest,
if not competence, in science and its application to human affairs,
even though Indian technological development was still in its infancy,
Scientific thought was a major part of the Indian inheritance but modern
technology was a Western innovation. The British mainly encouraged
humanistic and literary education in India, and neglected technical
studies and sciences. Whilst there were many liberal arts colleges in
India, there were only a few engineering or medical colleges. But the
enthusiasm with which the Indians have taken to science and the rapid
progress made in recent years is instructive, especially to those who think
of them as unworldly recluses, levitating in forests and holy places.

Mopern EDUCATION, IN which aesthetic values seldom find a place,
is not conducive to artistic development, in India or elsewhere. Indian
artists, however, managed to retain their traditional values and forms,
partly because the modernists neglected them, and partly because of
pride in their rich heritage. Consequently, the old canons are still
systematically applied in every form of popular art in India, and modern
Indian art, on the whole, retains the spirit of its exceedingly rich past.
But it has been influenced by artistic developments in Western countries.
Reflecting the new technical civilization and expressing the spirit of its
time, modern Indian art has become no less experimental than that of
Europe or America.
The Portuguese were the first to introduce late Renaissance and
Baroque art into their Indian possessions. It had limited effect. It was
with the British, and their need to build bungalows, factories, forts,
cathedrals, and cities, that Indian art came under a major European
influence; Bombay government offices, the Lahore railway station, ine
palaces of Gwalior and Baroda, and the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta
are but a few examples of various European architectural styles.
Later in the nineteenth century, a reaction against imitating Europe
3 set in, and Indian art took a new turn under Englishmen such as E. ;
_ Flavell, and Indians, such as A. N. Tagore. For a while, an art re i
persisted which attempted to recreate a national style of painting: ri

748

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

asin other spheres of cultural life, a process of synthesis commenced.
New schools began to arise, and there is no doubt that a fully developed
Indian art will be an integration of past and present, a synthesis of East
and West. Modern Indian artists are expressing themselves in all the
modern idioms of Europe and America, accompanied by the modes
of art practiced in India. Whilst Indian painters follow the styles and
techniques of modern Europe, especially of France, they depict scenes
and people in recognizably Indian manner.

British-built structures guided Indian architects. The importation
of European styles was soon followed by a period of blending the rich
Indian tradition with European design. An example of this was the
capital of British India, New Delhi, built by Sir Edwin Lutyens and his
associate, Sir Edward Baker, in the 1930's. Their first designs were a
type of neo-Roman style but, under severe criticism from innumerable
people in England, including such outstanding names in literature and
art as George Bernard Shaw and Sir William Rothenstein, the plans
were revised to incorporate Indian motifs. But the product did not turn
out to be a synthesis of styles but an assortment of patterns, hybrid and
uninspired, partly because New Delhi was built at a time when the old
style had lost all virility, and the new style was yet to be developed.
However, further changes have taken place since and a composite style
fees be on its way, blending elements of Hindu, Mughal, and

ian Gothic architecture.
ae es music remained almost uninfluenced by European ee
in tees ifications, however, are noticed in popular music, oles a
thee pens and in modern musical compositions K r Ae
ae “stern techniques. Some Indian composers, ae a an

iV ees in Western styles, sometimes using In ee
and Wee an occasionally incorporated a certain amount o. y

_ Stern melodies into his improvizations.
ee British impact on Indian social and cultural life may eee
ecisive as it was on Indian economic and political organizatic
3 ote tradition of learning and the introduction of aoe
the q., cation illuminated the path of Indian modernization, just as

the Past an appetite for knowledge had sustained India’s greatness in

749

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Education in ancient India, though somewhat limited in Scope, was
not commercial; teachers were generally not paid, nor did students
race through examinations to pick up lucrative jobs. It was a voluntary
partnership in pursuit of truth. Standards were too demanding al
academic freedom so firm that even the strongest ruler could not tamper
with universities. On the whole, the system of learning was exceedingly
effective. Emphasis was on philosophy but science was also studied, and
in all subjects an attitude of criticism and a spirit of inquiry and reason
were encouraged. However, this tradition of learning declined during
the long period of changing political patterns in India.

The mediaeval rulers remained indifferent to scientific and secular
education, and whilst the Western countries were making rapid scientific
progress, India allowed her intellectual heritage to go unused. The spirit
of inquiry was replaced by a sacrosanct attitude towards authority, and
an uncritical acceptance of opinions discouraged rational analysis.

The rise of Muslim power in India did not help matters much.
Islam, which had stirred Indian intellectual and cultural life into a burst
of activity, did not subscribe to the absolute supremacy of the human
intellect; it was decisively restricted by the holy scriptures as interpreted
by the Ulama. Islam had begun as an assertion of intellectual freedom,
but the initial urgency for this freedom was soon lost. Once Islam’s earlier
democracy was replaced by authoritarianism, Muslim education also
became subject to state authority, even in the most creative centres of
Islamic civilization. It is no small wonder that Muslim education in India
also became increasingly dogmatic, inward-looking, and stereotyped:
‘There was, no doubt, a wide network of schools, but the system of
education, consisting chiefly of the study of theology and scripture,
was not conducive to the sustained growth of higher learning. Neither
science nor technology was taught, although during the reign of Feroz
Shah Tughlaq an unsuccessful attempt was made to introduce a simple
form of technical education.

Indian education was in an especially neglected state on th ;
of British supremacy in India. Whilst the Hindu system of learning
was jealously guarded in Brahman caste interests, Muslim education,
although open to all, was dominated by theologians and confined t0 the

e eve

750

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

faithful study of the Quran. Both systems neglected literary and scientific
education, critical analyses, and women’s education.

The East India Company was reluctant to take responsibility for
expensive programs, such as religion, public welfare, and education;
although there were notable individual exceptions, for example, William
Carey and Sir William Jones. Until compelled to act otherwise, the
British Company's rule was like that of a mediaeval police state, anxious
to extract revenue and keen to maintain internal and external security
with no sense of obligation and responsibility for public welfare, health,
and education. Under the Act of 1813 the Company was required to
promote public education, and to make a ridiculously inadequate annual
grant of one lakh of rupees for educational purposes.

Many Indians were already somewhat familiar with Western education
through the activities of Christian missionaries. Danish missionaries had
taken the lead in starting English education in India from the middle
of the eighteenth century. Ram Mohan Roy even founded an English
school, the Hindu College—now known as the Presidency College—at
Calcutta in 1817. Starting with a hundred students, the College soon
became the leading educational institution of Bengal. In other parts of
oe country, English schools and colleges had been established through
Private efforts,

. oe Ram Mohan Roy wanted Western knowledge, he wanted
oe education to promote the moral and rational development of the
eae He was as much distressed at the secularism of the Hindu
fe as at ie orthodoxy of the pundits. Whilst Roy believed that the
io Sie was indispensable for the progress of the nation,” he never

is admiration for the Hindu Sastras which he sought to study in
ue light of modern thought.

a ee of agitation, in 1835 Macaulay's minute was ee and

Sic t “eneral Bentinck took a definite decision in favour of English.

cae 5, it was not until 1853, forty years after the Act of 1813, that
a ndia Company officials seriously investigated Indian education,

“sult of which the modern system of education in India emerged.

© Universities of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, modelled on the
ny London University, were founded in 1857. For a long time these
Sitles continued to be staffed by Europeans and taught a Western

751

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

curriculum. The British were not very generous with expenditures on
education; at the turn of the century, after more than a century of rule,
they provided little more than a million pounds a year for the education
of about 240 million Indians—a penny a head.

Widespread progress of Western education, however, was made
possible by the open-door policy introduced by the British, and by the
vast sums donated by Indian philanthropists. Learning, hitherto mainly
confined to Brahmans, rulers, or aristocrats, was now available to all
those who cared for it, although the expense involved made it still the
privilege of the well-to-do few. However, the multiplication of presses
meant greater production and wider circulation of books and, in turn,
education. (The art of printing had been introduced by Portuguese
missionaries in the sixteenth century but it made progress only after the
establishment of the British rule.)"

Western education was like an explosive force as it shattered dogma
and superstition. The Indians were compelled to reflect upon the bases
of their beliefs and institutions and to measure them against European
standards. If this new thinking helped the modernization of India, it also
gave rise to a class of Indian thinkers who shared Macaulay's contempt
of Oriental learning and, like Macaulay, without bothering to study it.

Indians took to Western learning so wholeheartedly and uncritically
that many of these newly educated men became comic imitators, without
any enduring contact with either West or East. They were overawed by
Western knowledge and in their eagerness to profit by it, missed its very
essence—intellectual scepticism and scientific investigation. Without a
critical understanding of Western learning, they made no effort to lea
their own. Even competent Indian scholars acquired at best a high level
of scholarly knowledge, but made no creative contribution to learning:
With great expertise they either elaborated Western concepts or sought
endorsement of their ideas in Western literature, Whilst Weste™
learning opened up new vistas of knowledge for the Indians, in eae
ways it blunted the edge of their intellectual scepticism. Consequently:
English-trained Indian scholars were generally inferior to European
authorities. Their intellectual subservience had been so intense that eve”

. Da o cir
at present, despite political independence, Indians have yet to assert th
intellectual freedom.

752

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

Some effects of English education were quite ugly, for it gave rise to
acultural minority with its own distinct features and interests. Although
the English-educated Indians were a very small minority in the country
(less than one per cent), they were numerous enough to constitute a
class of their own. Patronized by the British Government, this class
soon dominated the top levels of Indian life. It became a kind of middle
class interposed between the masters and the masses, often acting as
an insulator protecting the former against the latter. Whilst peasants,
workers, and petty tradesmen did not speak English, those above them,
from clerk to councillor, did. Spurred by the class-preservation instinct,
the Westernized Indian was led to rather indiscriminately adopt Western
forms in speech, dress, and manners; and to isolate himself from the
“illiterate” and “uncouth” masses of his own people. At best, he was a
laboriously cultivated English gentleman. At worst, he was clumsy if not
ludicrous, and often crude, pretending to enjoy European food, music,
and painting, at times even speaking his own native language with an
English accent.

The snob value of English degrees was so great that those who had any
kind of degree would take care to display it meticulously, and those who
could not pass their examinations would be anxious to let it be known
that they had reached the take-off point, even if they could not take off.
2 a result, there grew up not only a class of B.A.’s, out also a class of

B.A. failed? or “Intermediate passed.”

ae nglish-educated had a hierarchy of their own; r ees
iene s Bes those who returned from England, pre 2 ywi z :
dette e gree but without it if Decay. ae ans
An wee education other oem English pee to ae fe
oes aS of learning. History does not o = p ee A
of self cons a ere efforts for learning produced such a p ae

May be le ta andi seal echo ie ce ee aul fie
it was Piha a English themselves during the Norman Po
and English sa e 2 be French in speech, appearence: an ’

“action g z À nons onthe vane ion inevitably set in.
number Poe 2 kind of English a a a a a
tern Je ‘National institutions which imparte page

“ning, such as the Kashi Vidyalaya, the Jamia Milia,

753

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

the Gurukula, were established. In contrast, the Anglicized schools and
colleges strongly emphasized English education—not even European
learning—and students learned a good deal of England, its birds,
countryside, and flowers, and of English literature and history, The
national institutions did not, as expected, gain widespread support in
the absence of government patronage. ‘They were not assisted financially
or otherwise by the state, nor were their degrees recognized. On the
contrary, the British Government looked upon them with distrust
as centres of “subversive” propaganda. Indeed, these institutions did
seek to inculcate a sense of nationhood and Indian-ness and therefore
attracted students with nationalistic inclinations. As their degrees did
not originally entitle them to government or other positions, they did
not draw a response from the practical-minded. Despite their limitations
and small numbers, they have produced quite a number of competent
and successful national leaders, such as Acharya Narendra Deva, a much
respected Indian patriot-scholar, Lal Bahadur Sastri, who succeeded
Jawaharlal Nehru as India’s Prime Minister, and Zakir Hussain, who
was the first Muslim president of India.

‘The influence of English literature on the literature of Indian languages
was intensive. Poetry had been composed in India since the days of the
Rig Veda, but prose began to be written for the first time after a break of
more than a thousand years. Begun as polemics for and against religious
and social reform, prose forms rapidly reached maturity. Novels, short
stories, essays, and modern drama developed in Indian writing—the
short story particularly in the twentieth century.

Shakespeare became an integral part of Indian studies, exercising 2”
almost hypnotic influence on Indian literature and drama. Shakespeare
was not known to Indians until the beginning of the nineteenth century,
although he was writing his great tragedies around the time the East
India Company was founded in 1600. Once, however, English education
was begun anda knowledge of Western literature and thought became a
status symbol and an essential prerequisite for professional and pecuniary
gain, Shakespeare became familiar reading in Indian literary and dramati
circles. For most English-educated Indians, Shakespeare’s charac
the situations in his plays, and significant quotations, became almost F
intimate a part of their lives as those of their own best writers.

754

a
$

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

Most of Shakespeare’s better plays have been translated into Indian
languages. First to appear, in 1853, was a Bengali translation by
Harachandra Ghosh called Bhanumati Chittavilasa, an adaptation of
the Portia-Bassanio theme from The Merchant of Venice. Since then all
of Shakespeare's comedies have been translated, with the exception of
the “dark comedy,” (in fact unclassifiable as a kind of drama) Troilus and
Cressida, The Marathi version of the minor comedy, The Taming of the
Shrew, rendered by V. B. Kelkar in 1891 has been “acclaimed to be such
aperfect stage version that even if Shakespeare were a Hindu, he could
not have improved on it.” P. Sambanda Mudaliar’s Tamil adaptations of
Shakespeare are well known. The four best known tragedies have been
translated with alterations to suit the Indian taste, which prefers a happy
ending. For instance, Hamlet and Ophelia are reconciled at the end;
Desdemona is not really dead; a daughter is provided for Macbeth in
answer to the famous question, “How many children had Lady Macbeth?”
to make it possible for her to be married to Malcolm at the end.

However, it is doubtful if Shakespeare will continue to attract Indian
universities as before, and the modern scholar’s image of Shakespeare—
emphasizing the technical, social, source-hunting, and temporal aspects
gi his work—does not appeal much to Indians, who prefer to look at
him from literary and human viewpoints, as did the romantic poet-critics
during the last century.

ee CONTINUAL GROWTH of secular and scientific knowledge affected -
n Whole Indian attitude towards life. Indians were overpowered by the
ao Western liberty, parliamentary government, and nationalism.
a Marxism and socialism also permeated Indian thinking. Early
n a n even drew their inspiration from European patriots.
Were 70 S, Italian nationalist leaders, such as Mazzini and Garibaldi
as eee idols of Indian patriots. The Irish movement for self-rule
is y Watched and admired by many Indian leaders, for whom the
uc a pn were models of devotion and sacrifice. De Valera was as
Ihdian ~ dian as an Irish hero, and Subhas Bose was often called the

era.

A a ° major political ideologies have dominated Indian life for about
Mationalism and Marxism. Indian nationalism has long

755

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

assumed its own individual personality, and there is every likelihood that

gaini ng any
y look More
to Gandhi and Nehru than to Marx and Lenin. Nationalism was, no
doubt, primarily a reaction against British imperialism, which gave it the
consciousness of a common political community, the urge to org

Indian communism may well become distinctly Indian before
widespread adherence in India. Indian communists alread

anize,
and the power to attract widespread attention. It was further strengthened

by territorial unification, a uniform educational system, the establishment
of a communication network, and a highly centralized administration,
But its ideological rationalization and form came from the influx of
Western liberal ideas and a growing pride in its own cultural past.

How much Indian nationalism owes to the direct impact of European
liberalism would be extremely difficult to ascertain. The force of liberal
ideas certainly made British imperialism more humane and receptive to
Indian demands, although the growing power of commercial interests
in an era of industrial revolution invariably counselled authoritarianism.
Democracy at home was to “co-exist with despotism abroad.” The
conflicting principles of liberty and empire were to be blended into a
new and unique doctrine of “domination for the dominated.”

Many of the prophets and leaders of Indian nationalism were,
no doubt, greatly influenced by European liberal thought, but their
main inspiration was India’s cultural renaissance, which was almost
contemporary with Western liberalism. Ram Mohan Roy implored ie
British to introduce colleges of Western, not Oriental, learning to India.
He saw no contradictions between the freedom of liberalism and the
intrinsic values of Hinduism. Roy was not a product of the West, and
did not visit there until the end of his life. Even Jawaharlal Nehru, we
adopted British habits and thought-processes “more than even the Dies
themselves,” regarded Indian cultural heritage as the driving force behin ;
unity and progress. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the “Father of Indian Unrest
and the first man to suggest to Indians the goal of “swaraj (freedom pe
my birth-right,” did not visit England until almost the end of his a
He was deeply inspired in his political philosophy by the Bhagi avad ee
However, it would not be correct to assume that Western ideas did 2°
influence their thinking. 5

756

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

The common people, who formed the great bulk of the Indian national
movement, knew little of Western liberal ideas. The only impact they felt
directly was Western imperialism. To them, Western concepts of rights
and freedom were vague, hypothetical, and even hypocritical. They could
see the value of these concepts only when they were presented in Indian
terms. Thus, Aurobindo Ghose, a completely Westernized and English-
educated intellectual, who renounced politics to retire to Pondicherry in
the pursuit of Divine consciousness, spoke of nationalism as an Avatar
(an incarnation of God), which must emancipate humanity from demonic
oppression. Nationalism being God, was immortal, and therefore no
government could destroy it. Aurobindo Ghose, despite his too brief
incursion into politics from 1905 to 1910, was able to introduce into
the Indian nationalist movement an esoteric philosophy which proved
to be of immense political value both at home and abroad. The divinity
of “Mother India,” long cherished as an abstract and ethical conception
by many generations of Indian nationalists became a political weapon of
unquestionable efficacy in his hands. He preached that the sanctification
of patriotism was the dedicated worship of India personified as the Great
Mother. Much later Mahatma Gandhi spoke along the same lines to “the
teeming millions of India” who followed him. His concept of political
freedom was translated into “Ramarajya,” the kingdom of Rama, which
gas based on principles of universal morality, and in which justice,
righteousness, and the will of the people were supreme.

It Was this alliance between the imported concepts of liberty and
in = the developing ideals of renascent Hinduism ee ae
Meanin ae not only a distinctive chacie but ase a vow while
wae z H force. The concept of nationality, that is, e T

aia ae within a defined territory, and protem were ae
; ere tans throughout their history. Ancient literature tes =
national me image of Mother India and to a clear ee
reinstated n called Bharatavarsha, or js Bharat, a name z n
ove and so € republican constitution of India. Deep Cae

Š Beet for India were voiced in the vedic and epic litera : F
“Mother a contains passages of extreme pee z pi
Datural ae other-country are greater than Heaven. BRE PIS ae
€rs of India helped to weld all Indian peoples into an Indian

to
0:

757

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

oneness. The resuscitation of this image gave a definite meaning to Indian
nationalism, and Indians responded with intense feeling.
Indian leaders visualized political and social development as going
hand in hand, and considered social rejuvenation essential for political
and economic progress. Consequently, Indian nationalism in its early
phases was closely linked with cultural renaissance. Later, it became more
virile and political in character. It was not only the pride of the old, but
the vigour of the new which agitated for change (ingilab). Liberation
from alien rule was not sufficient; the nationalist movement was to be the
comprehensive crusade against all kinds of Oppressions— including social
and economic. In the final phase, the cry for change almost subordinated
the demand for political independence (swaraj or azadi).

The fact that Mahatma Gandhi, who was typically representative
of the Indian synthesis of contradictions which baffles logic, was able
to gain leadership of the national movement with little resistance and
held it almost unchallenged until his death, would further illustrate the
syncretic nature of Indian nationalism. Mahatma Gandhi, however, made
a distinction between Western and modern civilizations. Although both
were equally good, he believed the latter had taken a wrong turn in the
West. He, therefore, asked India to keep clear of that kind of modernized
West. His position was somewhat similar to that of Tolstoy—a moral
man in an immoral world, which had been brought about by a materialist,
militarist, and imperialist way of life. He called upon his countrymen to
select those elements from Western culture, as from any other, which
were essential for their own progress. The spirit of the century was to be
reconciled with that of the country.

In an era of intense nationalism, cultural pride, and racial pida
Rabindranath Tagore sought to broaden India’s outlook to one i
world-wide humanism. Truly a world-citizen, he consistently warne
his countrymen against the evils of nationalism, and, like Gandhi, spoke
of India’s self-purification and constructive work. For him, the ideal o
humanity transcended the love of country. Political freedom was e
necessarily real freedom but might merely be a means of becoming 2
powerful. Real freedom was of the mind and the spirit, and this ce f
not come to India from outside. Tagore was not against anyone nation mn

"particular but the idea of nationalism in general. He was, howeven yen

758

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

proud of Indian culture, and called upon the West to understand its good
qualities. Tagore’s influence over the Indian mind has been incalculable;
more than any of his contemporaries, he helped to harmonize the ideals
of East and West, and to broaden the bases of Indian nationalism. He
was one of the world’s great internationalists, believing in and working
for international co-operation, taking India’s culture to other countries
and bringing theirs to India.

Jawaharlal Nehru’s greatest gift to renaissant India was to underline
the intrinsic merits of Western culture. Although influenced by his
Indian heritage, Nehru was completely Western in his outlook. Scientific
rationalism, humanism, and socialism had a profound influence on
him, enabling him to fill a gap in Indian political life, a gap that could
otherwise have proven very costly. Western individualism was essential
in order to give the Indian a feeling of self-reliance. Contemptuously
discarding traditional self-effacement, he preached and practiced self-
assertion, even at the risk of appearing arrogant; competent arrogance
was preferable to empty humility in a society ridden with multiple social
and economic inequalities.

Nehru was the living symbol of what was best in the West. Most Indian
intellectuals saw in Nehru the ideal expression of their Westernization,
and a bridge between tradition and modernity. Even at a time when
Nehru lay in a British prison, he recorded in his Autobiography, “in spite
of my hostility to British imperialism and all imperialisms, I have loved
much that was England...” Yet, he spoke the Gandhian language of
Ghee away with evil, put your faith in goodness—in your goodness

a goodness of your opponent.” ;

ae re by the ethical norms of Western humanism, Coe Ss
Gree and the rationalism of the Buddha, Nehru ha fe
regarded pe a theory, during the late 1920 5. F T ee
Never a me x patron of democratic socialism in India, t Y Eee
that reas er of any socialist party. It was mainly eae x e
Political ve a completely Western product, was gos o sre
thought ae i has since considerably a ae A ee
ai ones literature, economic life, are Boca s oe sane

Satyaeraha T s moral influence and Nehru’s admiration 2 F
at restrained Nehru from becoming a Marxist socialist.

T9.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

During his visit to Europe in 1926-1927, he came into contact with

numerous Marxist intellectuals and leaders, especially at the Congress of

the League of Oppressed Peoples at Brussels, Later, he went to Russia

and was greatly impressed by the achievements of Socialist Russia
Since then he always advocated a socialistic society for India, based on
democracy and individual liberty.

From the declaration of Indian independence until his death in
1964, Nehru dominated Indian life and politics blending modern
values into Indian tradition with a skill that hardly has a parallel in
history. Throughout his life, despite frequent criticisms of his policy of
non-alignment, he remained a key man in world politics. A leader of
an anti-imperialist revolution, he embodied the hopes of peace of men
all over the globe. Others looked upon him as the architect of a unique
democracy, struggling between divergent forces to acquire economic
prosperity and social justice. The Indian revolution, although rooted in
Gandhian ethics, could be described as “Nehruesque,” for it is to Nehru
that it owes its present form, reflecting his typical combination of Indian
idealism and Western materialism.

Nehru was nota philosopher in the sense that Gandhi was, but without
him much of Gandhism would have remained in disuse, somewhat in
the same way as Marxism would have without Lenin, He commanded
both the respect of the intelligentsia and the love of the common man.
He was not only an exponent of the cherished ideals of his people but
an expression of human conscience. Few statesmen could claim his
empiricism without opportunism, and doctrinism without dogmatism.
He could win the personal affection of his political adversaries ornat
compromising either relationship. He believed that the “creative mind,
with its social sensitiveness, could alone solve the crisis of the human
spirit. It is this humanism which made him a representative of the West
in the East and of the East in the West. i

A major consequence of the West's impact on Indian tradition has
been in psychological attitudes. Being a self-contained, rich, agr icul ny i
community, India was conservative, hospitable, tolerant, and somewha
fatalistic. But all this changed, first under prolonged foreign dominatio

and later under the pressure of the newly developing competitive societ
India’s natural contentment has given way to a spirit of rebellion a

760

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

gelf-reliance which, under the excessive zeal of new converts, often
inclines Indians to self-deprecation and lack of collective discipline.
Highly individualistic, Indians have always resisted any regimentation of
thought. Extrovert, nonconformist, and informal, they express themselves
uninhibitedly, and indulge too often in reflection and introspection.
Whilst these qualities gave India a distinctive character, and advanced
her learning and democracy, they have often enough in the past, as in the
present, reached a point where they hinder organization, team work, and
discipline, the essential virtues of material transformation. It is curious,
for the Indian does not lack in self-discipline, or even in self-denial. In
fact, self-discipline to the Indian is not denial of one’s liberty but an
aid to individual spiritual perfection. However, any collective political
discipline is regarded as an abridgement of individual liberty. Despite
exemplary devotion and the spirit of self-sacrifice, conspiracies, mutinies,
and underground revolutionary movements failed in India because of
poor co-ordination and the inevitable leakage of information. Mass
movements, such as Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha, succeeded because
they were open, and required essentially individual effort. Whilst crowds
of people participated in satyagraha, in effect, each individual was a self-
contained movement, and as an individual he could successfully protest
against what he thought was unjust. Gandhi often did, alone.

Indians have yet to strike a balance between these two opposites
and learn to blend individual liberty with social discipline in order to
‘peed national advance. The value of compromise and discipline in a
collective effort cannot be overestimated. No chapter of history is more
instructive in this respect than that of Western activities in Asia. Western
oe in fact, the triumph of soe and oe me
this ee valour and an unco-ordinated approac to po Ta
eee ae oy to integrate individual gual tne 2 Scene
Meaningle ic n more than any other, finds its ee a ahs
Bae sae lsagreements, consis national Se eons i :
reel one that every Indian is a walking Lo x a Hae
NOt so eee What India needs, and has often stood in D

k o advice as sustained endeavour, aS
and criticism are, no doubt, indispensable for bot

liti
Political and spiritual health of a nation, but they can be overdone.

761

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Democracy after all consists of both criticism and effort. In India, they

ads to loss of
self-confidence, and thoughtless and irresponsible expression creates

an atmosphere of general frustration. Together they drain national
energy. Today, India’s most severe criticism comes from thinking
Indians, especially from perfectionists and those whose expectations far
exceed their competence. As perfection is unattainable, and undeserved
expectations remain unfulfilled, frustration is inevitable, with the result
that the very class of people who should be in the vanguard of an Indian
revolution are its great liability. One often finds on the one side the
educated Indians, extremely critical of everything and exuding gloom,
and on the other the common people solemnly engaged in the tasks of
national reconstruction. Irrespective of what awaits them—although it
is prosperity they expect to find—and unmindful of the urgency of their
job, the common men in India evidently find honest work for honest
ends inspiring and Satisfactory in itself.

‘The frustration of educated Indians is in no small measure conditioned
by Western criticisms of Indian achievements, which are not always
valid. Indians cannot shut themselves away from criticism, valid or
invalid, for they respect their own right to criticize. Often Western
critical analysis is more effective than it should be because it is couched in
English, a language in which the Indians are at a disadvantage. Indians,
however, are often reluctant to confess to this inadequacy for they still
confuse knowledge of English with knowledge itself and unconsciously
tend to measure the degree of a person’s learnedness by his command
of English. >

But even well meaning critics of India, who would like to see India
progress, quite often inadvertently measure India in Western terms and
confuse a difference of values and emphasis with unsoundness of policy
and practice. In any case, in their anxiety to achieve rapid results tbe)
have imposed a sense of urgency on the Indian experiment. Delay might
explode India, they fear, and may even disrupt world order. Indisputably,
the sooner Indian poverty is banished the better. But it would be
imprudent to lose balance for speed. It is better to reach the goal late 0”
one’s own feet than to arrive soon on a stretcher. PA

- India is not racing against either time, economic poverty, politic

sometimes part company. Excessive self-criticism soon le

762

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

rivalry, or alien criticism. She is fighting herself. If, during this period
of development, she cannot keep up national morale, avoiding the
frustrations inherent in partial successes or failures, and stand firmly
optimistic against the unsolicited flood of gloomy prophecies, no
amount of her past glory or professions of noble faith can lead her to
the desired goal.

If the British brought out the best in Indian society, they also
emphasized its hitherto dormant weakness. One such influence was on
the social and political relationship between Hindus and Muslims, which
finally destroyed the political unity of India. Before the advent of the
British in India, Hindus and Muslims had lived side by side for about
a thousand years in distinct social compartments, accommodating each
other's religious beliefs. In political spheres, there were, as anywhere
else, divisions within each community as dictated by the politics of
power. Political relationship was not hinged to religious beliefs. Socially,
Muslims were yet another caste in India. Just as the caste system
separating Hindus from Hindus came under condemnation, so did the
exclusion of Muslims from Hindu society. But Hindu-Muslim social
assimilation was a very different problem because of their diverse faiths
and traditions. Later, the development of modern politics, involving a
relentless struggle between Indian nationalism and British imperialism,
$ave rise to Muslim nationalism. Whilst the ruling power remained
alien, both Hindus and Muslims were equally deprived of authority, but
once the pr ospects of democratic self-government began to emerge, the
numerical superiority of Hindus caused a natural concern to Muslims.
ee the British deliberately introduced the policy a ee ve
nolities aun they did little to maintain the eapite of religion

» and still less to tone down the consciousness of communalism.
E a did make positive efforts to sonnin 2 pee
Made ane : e fears of peer aus Somes: ee olicy or fi
conscious aa genuine ignorance of the C a o aes ae
inflamed fea P Poa brie a ae dVi ero (fe t notes
Ora steren Ts. eco: every Secretary of ae 3 a yi e pues
Variations ae F age) which epea cee if ae in
ndian Ss n every public occasion, stressing the manifo! i 3
ety. Referring to India’s many languages, races, and creeds,

763

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

it sought to mobilize all the interests opposed to Indian Nationalism
and unity. It paraded minority statistics, not always quite accurate,
and invariably dwelt on the opposed religions and depressed Classes,
Sometimes this was done in a tone of fatalistic regret, sometimes with
an air of polemical triumph, but always the stress was on the divisions
of India. This was surely the wrong way to try to bridge such divisions
The reverse would have been more appropriate. The British might have
emphasized the fundamental unity of the two religions and their common
historical past.

It must, however, be pointed out that Western thought is, unlike
Indian, permeated with the consciousness of religious differences and
antagonisms, even amongst denominations of the same Christian faith,
Religion was the keynote of British politics and education until the end
of the nineteenth century. The British could have recalled that it was
only in 1829, after a period of prolonged opposition, that the Catholic
Emancipation Act was passed in Britain, even if they chose to ignore the
terribly bitter Catholic-Protestant conflicts and other religious struggles.
It was in 1836 that the Marriage Act of 1753, under which no one could
be legally married except by a Church of England parson, and which
was an intolerable insult to Catholics, was remedied, Religious bigotry
was intense in education. Catholics could not enter the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge until 1871, after the working class of the towns
had been enfranchized by the Reform Act of 1867, and long after the
rise of liberalism and concepts of individual freedom.

‘The treatment of the Jews was no better; indeed, the Jews did not get
full and equal citizenship rights until 1866. Charles Bradlaugh was Bol
allowed to take his seat in Parliament because he was an atheist, and it
took six years of painstaking struggle before he could enter the House
and voice the views of his constituents. Indeed, religion in England was
more than a matter of personal preference, and the Anglican Church
was more than an ecclesiastical choice. Protestant ascendancy was 4?
integral part of the British Constitution; the Coronation oath pledged
the monarch to defend Protestantism by law and power, and the Act 0
Settlement ensured a Protestant succession.

Yet the British might have communicated to Muslims and Hin dus
the Western discovery made long ago, that creed was an irrelevance 1°

764

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

modern politics, and emphasized the significance of economic and social
issues. ‘If every day and in every way, each according to his temperament
and opportunities, using the press and the wireless, schoolbooks and
white papers, the officials and spokesmen of this mighty government
had sought to minimise religious differences and promote an outlook of
secular commonsense, and done this steadily for fifty years, is it certain
that this feud would rage as it does today? They chose to make the other
speech.”

The influx of Western culture was a gradual, persistent, and un-
premeditated process, brought in by a motley crowd of Europeans
ranging from unscrupulous adventurers to devoted intellectuals,
missionaries, and administrators. As a class, these heralds of change,
however, made no conscious effort to hasten the process. This part
of Indian cultural transformation is a fascinating period of physical
endurance, intellectual interaction, and social rejuvenation. Indian
response to the West was ambivalent. It endeavoured, on the one side,
to reassert India’s great cultural past and, on the other, to purge its
traditional character. Consequently, India sought to strike a delicate
balance between the two.

As might be expected in any cultural encounter between two powerful
Civilizations, Western impact on India highlighted both the virtues and
evils of Indian society and culture. Whilst the British industrial revolution
‘Maugurated a new material era that transformed Indian economy, it
also gave rise to poverty, overpopulation, and famine. Whilst it stirred
the depths of the Indian mind, awakened its dormant spirit of scientific
aau and made new contributions to Indian life, it also compelled
o ee to defend its traditional inheritance, pee : ae
eee ee > totality it acted as a catalyst, ee in aa aves
unity, and ch gradually led to an organized nationa conscio

» and eventually to the modernization of traditional India.
eee
indeed been b hen oe oe nu oe oe tanh S
initiate S oF eee ma ee i the B itish colonial
adminis exchange in India, it was not B o IE
ndians Dane Meee © began to break
selves felt the pressure for change, that India began to

765

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

away from tradition to enter modernity. Despite many commentaries on
the subject, the process and all its implications are yet to be evaluated
dispassionately. Perhaps its full magnitude can only be seen after it has
stood the test of time. India today is both old and new, and this makes
her at once distinctive and complex. That Indian modernization began
under Western impact is not denied, but how much of it is her own
renewed vitality is often a subject of intense, if not acrimonious, debate,
The two views are not really contradictory or even incompatible; the
differences mainly arise when too much is claimed on one side and too
much discounted on the other,

Historians have achieved no consensus, nor are they expected to, on
the nature and consequences of the British impact on India. British rule
of India was a long process with several clearly marked phases. Inevitably,
cultural processes during this period proceeded in various directions and
at various levels. In some respects, the British influence was positive; in
others, negative. Again, some influences were the outcome of a conscious
policy, whilst others were unintentional and incidental. But in all respects
it was a stimulant on a stagnant society, with reactions ranging from
imitation and assimilitation to rejection.

‘The restoration of law and order, the unification of the country
under one central authority, the emergence of the middle classes,
the development of transport and communications, the revival of
international consciousness, in themselves are praiseworthy contributions.
But what is more important is that because of these it was possible for
Indians to pursue other cultural and intellectual activities. It is not for
what the British actually contributed that they should be judged, but
for making it possible for Indians to rejuvenate the best of their culture
and determine their own destiny. By making them conscious of both
their weaknesses and of their strengths, the British gave the naig
objectives and methods to approach these objectives. Knowledge °
Western thought and method, and especially Western experience, g2V°
Indians hope for the success of their new ideals. Without the awareness
of the modernization processes which the West itself had gone through,
it is extremely unlikely that Indian society could have been stirred int
action. Precept without precedent seldom appears attractive. if

The spirit of modern India is something like the spirit of nature itse

766

INDIAN RESPONSE TO MODERN EUROPE

It is ever new, constantly changing, yet old. Whilst they are actively
engaged in the pursuit of scientific achievements, the Upanishads will
continue to fascinate and inspire Indians, who will retain their search
for the ultimate, without sacrificing material prosperity. Meanwhile,
they will bear the weight of poverty with their characteristic quietness
and happiness. Gandhi will always inspire them more than Marx, and
their means will be as important as their ends. Yet what India represents
today is the emergence of a new civilization, not merely the continuation
of an old one.

India was in need of modernization, and the West introduced it to her.
Modernism, however, must not be confused, as is so often done, with
materialism or even Westernism. ‘There is nothing inherently Western
about modernism because it does not emanate from space but time. The
modern Indian man, for example, may be agnostic, atheist, religious, or
mystical. He is quite capable of experimenting with dangerous microbes
or exploring outer space in search of truth. His motivation may be the
spiritual conviction that man must know the truth about all things, or the
faith that human suffering will be reduced if not eliminated. A modern
saint, like a Karma Yogi, is often seen with hospital instruments or
laboratory test-tubes praying inarticulately to an impersonal God called
“tence or humanity. Modernism may have begun in the West but it
Is a universal and common human heritage. Even if there had been no
British tule in India, modernism would still have come, as it came, for
mstance, to Japan. In an era of increasing scientific and technological
advancement, the cultural isolation of one region could scarcely be
R Without the impediment of colonial mle, Indian response to

“st might have been even more unrestrained. Even so, although
oe of Western learning was somewhat limited by ie apen
ndia ee cae to select from what was offered was mainly i Na
ed to absorb voluntarily. She resisted Western domination,

ut
not Western learning.

767

NOTES

NOTES FOR PART I

Notes to Chapter I

1. Recent archaeological excavations in Turkey, conducted by the University
of Istanbul, have revealed evidence that communities with a well-developed
culture and economy had existed there as long ago as 7000 s.c., possibly
even earlier. The full implications of this discovery have yet to be properly
assessed. Jericho also belongs to about the same time and has yielded
evidence of a society organized in fairly large units.

2. V. Gordon Childe, “Europe and the Near East: A Prehistorian’s
Interpretation of Diffusion” in Harvard Tercenary Conference of Arts and
Sciences, Independence, Convergence, and Borrowing, p. 4.

3. Jean Filliozat, Political History of India, p. 85.

4. A team of archaeological experts from the Vikram University in Madhya
Pradesh State has recently succeeded in unearthing the remains oe
hitherto unknown Chalcolithic site, dating back to the third millennium
B.C., in the village of Kayatha, fifteen miles east of Ujjain. These finds ;
Kayatha are of historic significance inasmuch as they indicate for the firs
time the existence of a fairly advanced culture and civilization in the Mee
region in such a remote period of history. The excavations reveal the rman
of pottery, terracottas, copper tools, and some houses showing preni

; 5 d
affinity with the Harappan and pre-Harappan elements of Rajasthan S
Punjab.

rordon Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, p. 169:
agi
5 768

6.
7.

8.
9,

18,

19,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER I

Herodotus, Zhe Histories, III. 106.

J. B. Hutchinson, R. A. Silow, and S. G. Stephens, The Evolution of
Gossypium, p. 88. Also see Vol. II, Ch. II, pp. 69-72.

Jacquetta Hawkes and Sir Leonard Woolley, History of Mankind, 1, 396.
Two scholars, S. K. Ray, an Indian, and El Mansouri, an Egyptian, have
pointed out striking similarities between the cultures of these two areas
and have recently suggested, in independent studies, a historic and close
relationship between ancient Egypt and prehistoric India, especially Bengal.
S. K. Ray, Pre-historic India and Ancient Egypt; and S. M. El Mansouri,
Art-Culture of India and Egypt.

. A. L. Pusalkar, Cultural Heritage of India, I, 155.

. Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, p. 170.

. Childe, Independence, Convergence, and Borrowing, p. 19.

. Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, pp. 183-84.

. H. D. Sankalia, Indian Archaeology Today, p. 69.

. Pusalkar, Cultural Heritage of India, I, 148.

. John Garstang, The Hittite Empire, p. 205.

. V. Gordon Childe, The Aryans, p. 19. The precise manner in which the

kings of Mitanni and the vedic Aryans were connected will remain obscure
until further inscriptions are brought to light through archaeological
excavations.
Although the Phoenicians have left a rich legacy of ancient west Asian lore
to the West, such as the alphabet, the knowledge available about them,
as compared to the Romans or the Greeks, is scant. No Phoenician, or
Punic, city has been resurrected which could give an overall picture of their
ancient life. The sites of Sidon and Tyre, much destroyed and repeatedly
rebuilt, may yet yield rich rewards. Potentially fruitful excavations, however,
including underwater work, are now under way at the site called Motya,
near Marsala in Sicily.
The Indian origin of ivory has been confirmed in recent years by the fact
that some specimens of ivory from the collection of Nimzud have beca
recognized to be of Indian material. The Phoenicians were importing
Very from Dedan, in North Arabia, by the sixth century B-C- As there
Were no elephants in Arabia, ivory must have been imported from India
Somaliland by sea and thence across Arabia by camel. The case for its
aa Origin is reinforced by the discovery of several pieces of ivory at
ahrein in the Persian Gulf, probably of the sixth or seventh century B-C.

769

20.
21.
22.
23.
24,
73.

26.
27.

28.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

See G. E. Bean, “Early Greek and Oriental Ivories,” Journal of Hellenic
Studies, LXVIII (1948), 1.

Inaha-Ummagga Jataka, No. 546.

Cecil Roth, A Short History of the Jewish People, p. 21.

See Michael Ridley, The Seal of Aetea and the Minan Scripts.

Gaveru Jataka, No. 339.

This subject is more fully discussed in Ch. V

For a summary of the arguments favouring the theory that India was the
original home of the Aryans, see R. C. Majumdar (ed.), The History and
Culture of the Indian People, 1, 215-17.

Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, p- 188.

It has often been said that there is much secular poetry in the Vedas.
However, these songs, themes, and humorous episodes have been applied
to religious purpose.

Linguistic evidence indicates the Indo-European families fall into two
distinct groups, according to the modification which certain consonants
of the parent speech underwent in each, known as the Centum (“hundred”
in Latin) and Sażem (“hundred” in Avesta). The former group includes
the Hellenic, Italic, Teutonic, and Celtic branches, and the latter the

Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, and Albanian. Some scholars,

however, like Sturtevant, have criticized the Centum-Satem hypothesis.
Contemporary philologists attach less importance to this Centum-Satem
division since the discovery of a Centum language in Central Asia in the
tenth century A.D. and the discovery that in the nineteenth century po
the Hittites in Asia Minor spoke a language more nearly allied to Latin
than to any Satem tongue.

It was first thought that the Indo-European languages had arisen out of
a parent speech and family trees were constructed. Realizing, howeve®
that this was too much of an oversimplification, scholars later suggested
that there was a continuum of diverging dialects, some of which were
crystallized into languages. Even this view was exposed to exceptions. The
present view is that the Indo-European languages have emerged, so
divergent forms gradually, through the convergence of a loose and scattere

` DA a eir
- continuum of distinct dialects. Whatever the course and nature of th

5 = Pee ted
‘Convergence and divergence may have been, they are certainly jnterrela

__ bysome common starting point or process. The
). For a fuller discussion, see V. Gordon Childe, The Aryans, pp. 3-16

ant, Filippo Sassetti, having lived in Goa for five yeaS
770

32

33.

34.

35.

36.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER I

between 1583 and 1588, declared that some relationship existed between
Sanskrit and the principal languages of Europe. Later, Coeurdoux in 1767,
and still later Sir William Jones in 1786, noticed affinities between Latin,
Greek, and Sanskrit vocabularies and grammars, and put forward the theory
ofa common origin. The original Indo-European is extinct and has taken
different forms in different environments over the intervening thousands of
years. Of all the existing Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is closest to
the basic idiom as reconstructed by comparative philology. Some scholars
regard Sanskrit, with its three numbers, three genders, and eight cases of
noun, as well as an extremely complicated verbal structure, as the nearest
representative of the parent, highly inflected Indo-European language.

. The word Aryas is also found in the western group.
31.

For a discussion of the possible reasons for the discontinuance of the
relationship, see R. C. Majumdar (ed.), History and Culture of the Indian
People, I, 218ff.

“In this inversion,” remarks Gordon Childe “we detect the hand of the
prophet Zoroaster himself, who was perhaps the first great religious
reformer:” The Aryans, p. 36.

Bopp was the first scholar to notice the connection between Avestan Ahura
and Sanskrit Astura, and Avestan deava and Sanskrit deva.

Seleucia and Antioch did not exist as such during the Achaemenian
period; both cities were founded by Seleucus Nicator in 300 and 312 B.c.
respectively.

The Persians, if not the later Assyrians, were the first to create a permanent
System of roads and to provide for their regular maintenance, cementing
bridges, embankments, and stations at convenient stages.

“The Indians, the most populous nation in the known world, paid the
largest sum: 360 talents of gold dust.” Herodotus, The Histories, HI, 95.
Considering that only a small part of India was under the Persian Empire
and that it formed only one satrapy the amount paid in revenue speaks
highly of Indian prosperity at the time, even if allowance is made for the
Eross exaggeration to which Herodotus was very prone: Actually, astudent
of Indian history is amazed by the numerous references of foreign travellers
to India’s great riches. Arab and Chinese writers frequently mention them;
Sir Thomas Roe, who visited the court of Jahangir an te Erencan
century complained, “Europe bleedeth to enrich aa TE a p
contemporary, refers to the gold coins which flowed into India 2 goei
out not.” The French traveller Bernier, too, in the seventeenth century,

771

37.
38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.
45.

46.

47.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

writes that gold and silver came from all over the globe “to be swallowed
up, lost in some manner in Hindustan.”

K. A. N. Sastri (ed.), Age of the Nandas and Mauryas, p. 390.

There is no real certainty that the pillars were made by Asoka. Some of
them, it is likely, were in existence before him. He often ordered that his
edicts be “inscribed on pillars whereever they may be found,” or words to
that effect.

Irrespective of his motives, which were wholly moral and partly practical,
Asoka is the only monarch on record who renounced war after victory.
H. G. Wells, who considers Asoka as one of the six greatest men of
history—the only king included—says: “Amidst the tens of thousands of
names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and
graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name
of Asoka shines, and shines almost alone, like a star.” Outline of History,
p. 247.

‘The origin of the name Kharoshthi is obscure but the term seems to mean
script written on the skin of donkeys. See J. Przylushi, Journal of the Royal
Asoka Society, p. 4.

E. B. Havell, The History of Aryan Rule in India, p. 105.

“Superficially these pillars,” comments Hermann Goetz “remind one of
Achaemenid columns, and yet they are different in every detail.” India, p.
47.

The Greeks did not pronounce an initial aspiration, sharply or clearly, as
they did not use a variety of sibilants.

Herodotus, The Histories, IV, 44.

Three centuries elapsed before this feat of a Red Sea journey was
repeated.

The Cambridge History of India, p. 397. “Ktesias is responsible for most
of the grotesque legends about India which fill the pages of classical and
medieval writers to the days of Sir John Mandeville.” H. G. Rawlinson
Intercourse between India and the Western World, p. 26. ;
A-R. Burn, Persia and the Greeks, p. 12. It was Ctesias who was responsible
for introducing into Western lore the monster called the Martichora (a
good Persian word meaning man-eater, which, corrupted into mantichor
passed by way of Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian into the mediaeval bestia).
He described this monster, which he claimed to have seen at the court 0

x Persian king who had been sent one from India, as a creature the siz”
Jion with the face of a man. In contrast, Herodotus, who introduce
zs hee : 772

48.

49,

50.

53.

54.

55.

56.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER I

the phoenix into the West, at least confesses that “I myself have not seen
this bird except in a picture.” Aristotle, himself, whilst describing Ctesias’
monster says “If one may believe Ktesias.”

“In some ways—though few—the civilization of Persia,” observes Will
Durant, “was superior to that of contemporary Hellas; it produced a type of
gentleman finer than the Greek in every respect except that of intellectual
keenness and education, and a system of imperial administration that easily
excelled the clumsy hegemonies of Athens and Sparta, and lacked only the
Greek passion for liberty.” The Life of Greece, p. 69.

In his Rede Lecture for 1875; Sir Henry Maine said, “Except the blind
forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in origin,”
Cited in J. A. Symonds, Studies of the Greek Poets, p. 578.

For a quick reference to the genesis, development, influence, and recent
partial decline of the classical Greek myth and the legend which has shaped
much European thinking, see Philip Sherrard, The Pursuit of Greece.

. Rig Veda, X, 71.
; Although the Jiad and the Odyssey are attributed to Homer, little is known

of Homer himself. He is considered, however, the first and possibly the
greatest European poet, and the one who provided a link between the
Mycenaean and classical Greek cultures. Both poems went through a long
process of development during which they were enlarged and adapted by
generations of bards before reaching their final form, as it is known today,
in about the sixth century B.C.

Cyrus H. Gordon, Before the Bible, p. 238. In the Zad the chief river of the
Trojan plain was called by the gods “Xanthos” and by men “Scamander”;
a certain bird was called “Chalkis” by the gods and “Kumindis” by men.
G.N. Banerjee, Hellenism in Ancient India, pp- 198-99. Also see Sir William
Ramsay, Asian Elements in Greek Civilization, Ch. VI.

It should be noted that archaeologists have discovered enough evidence to

endorse the existence of the cities of Troy, Mycenae, and others mentioned an.
.c. somewhat akin to

the Iiadand of a Mycenaean civilization before 1200 8 Acts
that described by Homer. Of the two Homeric poems, the Odyssey is mainly
fictional whilst the Iliad purports to be fundamentally an histone! poem.
J. W. McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 1. In a recent study, discussing the
Common background of Greek and Hebrew civilizations, itis suggested that
Homer, like the authors of the Bible, had an east Mediterranean heritage.
Both the Gilgamesh and the Odyssey relate the episodic wanderings of a

773

57.

58.

597
60.
61.

62.
63.

64.
65.
66.

67.
68.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

hero, in both the heroes reject a goddess’ proposal of cohabitation, and in
both the heroes interview the dead in Hades. The recapture of Helen in
the Miad is paralleled in the Ugaritic Epic of Kret, in which the pretty wife
of Kret is withheld from him at Udum. Cyrus H. Gordon, Before the Bible,
p. 19.

On the authority of Aristotle, we know that Thales was the forerunner of
the absent-minded professor who, on a walk, was so intently looking up
to heaven that he tumbled into a well.

Opinion on the question as to when Greek philosophy ended is divided,
Many scholars hold the view that since the ideas and texts of Greek
philosophy are still studied and debated, it never died, whereas others,
taking a somewhat narrower view of its tradition and continuity observe
that, as an organized study with its own students and professors, it came
to an end in 529 when the Emperor Justinian closed the philosophical
schools at Athens.

Gilbert Murray, Greek Studies, pe Zl

W. K. C. Guthrie, 4 History of Greek Philosophy, 1, 4.

Greek philosophy has been divided into four main periods—the pre-
Socratic from the early sixth to the middle fifth century B.C.; the Socratic
up to the fourth century 8.c.; the Hellenistic from the period of Alexander
to the rise of the Roman Empire; and the period associated with the
emergence of Neoplatonism, in which Greek philosophy became extinct.
Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, pp. 36-37.

A. K. Coomaraswamy, Hinduism and Buddhism, p- 8.

Guenon, “Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines,” p. 31. Cited
In Floyd H. Ross, The Meaning of Life in Hinduism and Buddhism, p- =
William Gould, George Arbaugh, and R. F. Moore, Oriental Philosopies
p- 1.

Original texts and details of the system of Indian materialism as of some
other movements, are not available.

C. Kunhan Raja in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern
and Western, 1, 31-38. ;

‘The influence of vedic thought on Indian science is discussed in Ch. Mh
“As opposed to the other vedic texts which relate to the way of ator the
karmamarga, they represent the way of knowledge, the jnanamarga, Lows

_ Renou, Vedic India; p. 33.

774

69.

70.
71.
22.
73.

77.
78,
79,
80,

81.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER I

Many more probably existed at an early time, but even now there are still
over two hundred Upanishads, although the traditional number cited is
one hundred and eight. Of these there are ten principal ones. The word
Upanishad is coined from three Sanskrit words meaning literally sitting
near, picturesquely describing groups of pupils sitting near the teacher to
learn the truth. Some Upanishads are composed in verse, some in prose,
and others in a combination of both.

S. N. Das Gupta in G. T. Garratt (ed.) The Legacy of India, pp 23-33.
Max Müller, Tile Six Systems of Indian Philosophy, pp. 215-19.

Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage, p. 534.

The Orphic theology does not regard the body as the instrument of soul,
but as its prison, or its tomb, and believes in transmigration, the grievous
cycle of births. For the Pythagoreans the soul was a divine being, fallen
and entombed in the body through a series of reincarnations, and it could
revert to its original state by leading a life of ritual purity and virtue, by
bringing itself into tune with the order and harmony of the universe, and by
understanding how the principles of all things were derived from numbers.
See A. H. Armstrong in H. Lloyd-Jones (ed) The Greeks, p. 127.

aS Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 142.
75.

76.

Herodotus, The Histories, II, 123.
“Herodotus’ derivation of the rebirth theory from Egypt is impossible, for
the good reason that the Egyptians had no such theory.” Herodotus had
further concluded, also mistakenly, that the Greeks learned of Heracles
from the Egyptians. See E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p.
160.
Theodor Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, 1, 127.
E. J. Urwick, The Message of Plato, pp- 13-14.
A. A. Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, p. 422-
Whilst Macdonell accepts the high degree of probability of Ute thought
influencing Pythagoras, his pupil, Keith, is of the opinion that “... the chim
that Pythagoras learned his philosophic ideas from India though widely
accepted rests on extremely weak foundations.” A. Be Ss A BLO)
of Sanskrit Literature, p. 500. For an elaboration of his ideas, see Keith,
“Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas,” Journal of Royal Asiatic Society,
XXIX (1909), pp. 579E.

€ Ionian philosophers have been call
attention to the facts of experience;

ed empiricists—those who pay more
and the Pythagorean and Eleatics

775

82.
83.
84.

85.
86.

87.
88.

89.

90.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

have been called rationalists—those who rely on axioms, then accepted ag
self-evident, and deduce incontestable truths. Thus between them, they
represented the two major directions of Greek thought. ‘
W. K. C. Guthrie, 4 History of Greek Philosophy, 1, 402.
W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers, p. 50.
R. D. Ranade in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern and
Western, 1, 37. Ranade goes on to call Samkara an Indian Parmenides,
T. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, 1, 206-07.
E. J. Urwick, The Message of Plato, pp. 1-14.
S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 151.
Pythagoras appears to be an excellent example of such a combination.
Zeller suggests that it was always in times of great crises, such as in the fifth
century after the Peloponnesian War, that the dualistic-mystical tendency
came to the fore. s
Essentially, there were three stages in Greek religion: Chthonian,
Olympian, and Mystic. The first worshipped subterranean, the second
celestial, and the third resurrected gods. The first predominated before the
Homeric Age, the second during it, the third after it. By the time of the
Periclean Enlightenment the most vigorous element in Greek religion was
the mystery. Will Durant, The Life in Greece, p. 188. Gilbert Murray has also
made a similar demarcation in the progress of Greek religion. He calls the
first stage the primitive, or the age of ignorance, which is typical of similar
stages elsewhere and which may be regarded as the normal raw material
out of which religion is made. The second stage is termed the Olympian or
Classical, in which primitive vagueness was reduced to a kind of order, and
the third stage is called the Hellenistic period, reaching roughly from Plato
to St. Paul and the early Gnostics. Five Stages of Greek Religion, pp. 2-3.
F. M. Cornford writes: “Whether or not we accept the hypothesis of
direct influence from Persia or Ionian Greeks in the sixth century B.C
any student of Orphic and Pythagorean thought cannot fail to see that
the similarities between it and Persian religion are so close as to warrant
our regarding them as expressions of the same view of life, and using p
one system to interpret the other.” Religion to Philosophy, p. 176. Guthrie
finds resemblances too detailed to escape the hypothesis of direct influence
Orpheus and Greek Religion, p. 87.

91. Edward Zeller, Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy, p. 34:
92. Will Durant, The Life of Greece, p. 191.

776

93.
94.

95.

96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
. E. R. Dodds, “Plato and the Irrational,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXV,

10

=

102.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER I

w.K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, p. 238.

Guthrie points out that Euripides, who was one of the most inquiring
spirits in an age of inquiry and who might be called an eclectic, knew “the
writings of the Orphics, and we may judge that he felt a certain sympathy
for the ascetic ideal they upheld. ...” Orpheus and Greek Religion, p. 237.
A well-known thinker of this century, Whitehead, says that “the safest
general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that
it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Cited in A. O. Lovejoy, The
Great Chain of Being, p. 24.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I, 3.28.

Plato, Republic, VII, 515-21.

Plato, Phaedo, 65-67.

Cited in E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 139.
Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 149.

24.

Some of them, such as Pococke, have asserted that Greek civilization, not
excepting its language, is a local variation of an Indian culture taken to
Greece by early colonists from India. India in Greece. Princep is recorded
to have observed that “Greek was nothing more than Sanskrit turned
topsy-turvy.” D. S. Mahalanbois, “A New Light on Plato,” Modern
Review, August 1963, p. 142. Talking of Plato’s mysticism, Strutfield says
that “India, always the home of mystical devotion probably contributed
the major share.” Mysticism and Catholicism p. 74. Hopkins says “Plato is
full of samkhyan thought worked out by him but taken from Pythagoras.”
Discussing the historical genesis of Greek antiquity, J. P. Mayer observes:
“Egyptian, Persian and Indian cultural influences were absorbed into
the Greek world from very early times.” Political Thought, The European
Tradition, p. 7. Sir William Jones has pointed out “it is impossible to
tead Vedanta or the many fine compositions in illustration of it without
believing that Pythagoras and Plato derived their sublime theories from the
same fountain with the Indian sages.” Colebrooke, the great Orientalist,
States significantly that “a greater degree of similarity exists boigan the

ndian doctrine, and that of the earlier than the later Greeks.” He goes
on to conclude that Greek philosophy, especially pe eee P. ythagoras and
Royal Asiatic Society Transactions, I.

lato, was indebted to Indian thought. :
Contemporary scholar of Western political thought, John Bowle, briefly

777

103.
104.
105.
106.
107.
108.

109.
110.

111.
112.
113.
114.

115.
116.
117.

118.
119. Opinion is divided as to when ancient Greek society perished. Some

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

but categorically declares that Plato was influenced by Indian Ide
Outline of World History, p. 91.

E. J. Urwick, The Message of Plato, p. 14.

Ibid., pp. 27-28.

Plato, Republic, III and IV, 412-27.

Aristotle, Politics, Ch. XLI.

E. J. Urwick, The Message of Plato, pp. 15-39.

For Hindus, however, it has been the main principle of their metaphysics,
‘The discovery of the means of putting a stop to further transmigration—the
discontinuance of corporal being—and the liberation of the soul from body
have been almost the foundations of Hindu philosophy.

E. R. Dodds, Journal of Hellenic Studies, LXV, 16.

Amongst contemporary philosophers in the Western world there has
developed a body of thinkers who regard Plato’s doctrine with some
contempt, for it seeks to solve logical problems by postulating metaphysical
entities. Not all scholars share this view, and even the critics of Plato
disagree amongst themselves.

A. H. Armstrong, The Greeks, p- 131.

F. M. Cornford, Before and After Socrates, p. 89.

Some scholars regard Kautilya as belonging to a much later period.

B. A. Saletore, Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions, pp-
191-290.

Bhagavad Gita, I, 49.

A. K. Coomaraswamy, Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, p. 279.
Situated on the borders of Macedon and Thessaly, the 9600 foot high
Mount Olympus was as sacred for the Greeks as were the Himalayas for
the Indians. The Greeks believed that the summit of Olympus reached the
upper air where Zeus had his throne surrounded by the other gods and
goddesses of Greek mythology. The Canaanites also chose the mountain,
Saphon, as the abode of their pantheon, and Mount Sinai as the meeting-
place of Moses and Jehovah.

Gilbert Murray, Five Stages of Greek Religion, p. 49.

as. A New

scholars hold that it died long before the Christian era, whereas na
date: when Constantine founded Constantinople and Christ

ization began to replace “pagan” Greek culture in the easter

o R

120.
121.

123,
124.

2

nn

126.
127.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER II

Mediterranean. Yet, there are others who date its end as late as the seventh

century.

H. D. Kitto, The Greeks, pp. 169-94.

R. D. Ranade and R. N. Kaulin in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of
Philosophy: Eastern and Western, II, 26.

_ But, as A. H. Armstrong points out, “... though Greek philosophers did

not as a rule expect or want to get any practical advantage for themselves
from their philosophy, at least from the age of Socrates they were not
impractical in the sense of being uninterested in ordinary human life and
problems.” H. Lloyd-Jones (ed.), The Greeks, p. 123-24.

Sir Wiliam Ramsay, Asianic Elements in Greek Civilization, p. 4.

M. P. Nilsson, Greek Piety, p. 137.

. Enfield even says that “India was visited by Pythagoras, Anaxardes, Pyrrho,

and others, who afterwards became eminent philosophers in Greece.” There
are authorities who suggest that Plato had found his way to the banks of
the Ganges.

E. R. Dodds, Humanism and Technique on Greek Studies, p. 11.

The case of an influence in the other direction seems hardly tenable.
Discussing the remarkable coincidences between the Greek and Hindu
metaphysical systems, H. H. Wilson says: “That the Hindus derived any
of their philosophical ideas from the Greeks seems very improbable; and if
there is any borrowing in the case, the latter were most probably indebted
to the former.” Iswara Krishna, Samkhra Karika, H. T. Colebrooke (trans.).

Also see H, H. Wilson, The Commentary of Gaurapada (Combined volume),
p. ix.

Notes to Chapter IT

il,

he conventional view of the Persian Empire as a typical Oriental tyranny
!S as much a violation of the canons of historical criticism as it is illustrative
= Massive prejudice which has persisted despite periodic refutations. It
5 derived from a superficial reading of Herodotus, who was full of Greek
Prejudices against the dominant Persians, and from the writers of late
Pees sought to glorify Rome at the expense of her predecessor. In
modern times, Western writers in search of antiquity for their young but
ae ic civilization sought first to link it more firmly than it ne
nt Greece, second to glorify it unreservedly, and finally to denou:

its Š
adversaries undeservedly. $

779

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The conflict between Persia and Greece has often been described asa
struggle between East and West. In fact, such a concept did not exist then,
and it is misleading. E. B. Havell writes: “The conflict of the free Cities of
Hellas with Darius of Persia was, however, the assertion of Aryan political
principles against irresponsible autocracy rather than an Opposition of
intellectual and spiritual ideals, or a struggle between Western civilization
and Eastern barbarism, as is usually represented.” The History of Aryan Rule
in India, p. 62. A contemporary writer, A. R. Burn, in his recent study,
Persia and the Greeks, has also tried to assert that this conflict must not be
analyzed in the modern concepts of national or cultural allegiance.

2. William Robertson, An Historical Disquisition Concerning India, p. 15.

It has been suggested that Alexander was poisoned but this can neither be
proved nor disproved.

Some European scholars, such as V. A. Smith, however, have magnified
his military successes and triumphant progress from the Himalayas to the
sea against “the greatest Asiatic armies.” In fact, Alexander had never come
face to face with any of the powerful nations of India and his army evaded
an encounter with the Magadha forces.

“The story of Alexander the Great appears to us as an almost embarrassingly
perfect illustration of the man who conquered the world, only to lose his
soul. After fighting, scheming and murdering in pursuit of the secure
tenure of absolute power, he found himself at last on a lonely pinnacle over
an abyss, with no use for his power and security unattainable.. Alexander
illustrates with startling clarity the ultimate loneliness of supreme power.
E. Badian, Studies in Greek and Roman History, p. 204.

6. An Indian scholar, R. K. Mookerji, designating Alexander as the precurso!

of the recognized scourges of mankind, points out that this contact “was
achieved at the cost of untold suffering inflicted upon India—massact®
rapine, and plunder on a scale till then without a precedent in her annals,
but repeated in later days by more successful invaders like Sultan Mahmud,
Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah.” R. C. Majumdar (ed.), History and Culture
of the Indian People, II, 53.

More cities and persons in a variety of countries and throughout all ve
past centuries have been named after Alexander than any other ae
conqueror in history. His personal name, Alexandros (defender of Mee
originally an epithet for a Greek goddess), has since been known 1? :

“humerous variations: Turkish and Arabic—Iskander; Indian and Pers! a

—Sikander, Scottish—Alastair, Alec, and Sandy; French—Alexand

780

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER II

English—Alexander. Its feminine counterpart, Alexandra, is also a
commonly used proper name. ‘The only other name, although not of a
conqueror but of a prophet, which has been borne by more male persons
than that of Alexander is Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

8, Alexander, of course, encouraged such marriages mainly for political
reasons. His own marriage to Roxane was not exactly a love match. Indeed,
itis doubtful if Alexander cared for any woman other than his own mother,
who is described as “terrible.” These marriages were celebrated with
unprecedented pomp, and Alexander gave rich gifts to married couples.
He desired a new ruling class and a royal army of mixed blood with no
fixed domicile. That the courtiers and commanders married mainly to
please Alexander is suggested by the fact that after his death many nobles
repudiated their Persian wives. Many bridegrooms died soon after their
marriage. According to Badian, it was after his army had posthumously
denounced Clitus for treason, thereby legitimizing Alexander's murder of
him, that Alexander became more autocratic and “now regularly wore an
adaptation of Persian royal dress, and before long he married an Iranian
princess. This would have been unthinkable a few months earlier.” Studies
in Greek and Roman History, p. 198.

9. Callisthenes, who acted as Alexander's press agent and had done much for

him, was tortured and executed by Alexander, ostensibly for treason but

in reality for his opposition to Alexander's claims to divine honours and

Prostration. He had supported Alexander's claim to divinity.

Arrian, Analasis Alexandri, VII, 2. Calanus is mentioned by many other

Greek writers, Diodorus in his Bibliotheca Historica, Ch. CVII, says that

Calanus was held in high esteem by Alexander. Dandamis is reported

to have rebuked Calanus for being lured into accompanying Alexander,

denouncing him as unworthy of the friendship of God. Calanus
accompanied Alexander and taught one of his generals, Lysimachus, who
later became the King of Macedonia. However, Calanus fell ill at Susa

Se lost the desire to live, burned himself to death in the presence

he € army amid trumpets and royal salutes. Before his end, however,
eaei Alexander's death, saying to him, “we shall meet ee a

u. ie cor Cited in W. W. Tam, Alexander the Great (Narrative), p. 110.

2 : Ea Political History of India, p. 119.

18. A avell, The History of Aryan Rule in India, p. 63. s

4. He ary and E, G. Warmington, The Ancient Explorers, p- oe

mchandra Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India, p. 262.

10,

781

15.
16.
17.
18.

19.
20.

21.

22.

23.
24.

25.
26.
Dh
28.
29.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

M. Rostovtzeff, History of the Ancient World, 1, 349.

E. Badian in H. Lloyd-Jones (ed.), The Greeks, p. 236.

John Bowle, An Outline of World History, p. 97.

‘The Greek historian, Athenaisos, relates an interesting story, which is trivial
in itself but points to familiarity between the Indian king and the Greek,
Bindusara had asked Antiochus to send him a Sophist with sweet wine
and dried figs. Whilst he was sent wine and figs, he was informed th
Greece laws forbid a Sophist to be sold.”

Indo-Asian Culture, October 1958, p. 121.

‘This conversion of a Greek prince to Buddhism by an Indian philosopher
is symbolic of the East and West cultural collaboration. Milinda Panho
(Questions of Milinde) is certainly a landmark in the history of Asian culture.
‘The enormous increase in the number of Greek coins and the exhibition
of Indian goods by Antiochus together would suggest the pattern of trade
between the Hellenic world and India. It further indicates that Greece
imported goods from India and paid for them in cash.

W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, pp. 316-23. Seleucus had
entertained ideas of connecting the Caspian and Black Seas by a canal to
improve trade between Asia and Europe. If he had not been assassinated
soon after and had succeeded in doing so, the history of Asia could have
been somewhat different.

at “in

It has been suggested that the temple at Taxila is Greek in style.
Because Graeco-Buddhist art flourished during the period of thriving trade
between the Kushans and the Romans, it has been suggested that this art
should be called “Romano-Buddhist” instead. See R. Ghirshaman, Iram
p- 2. During the Sassanian period there was indeed close contact betwee?
India and Iran. Magi priests came to India and gave further impetus to su
worship. Inscriptions in Pahlavi have been found on crosses in several pace
in South India. The well-known copper plate grant to the Syrian gas
in South India carries in Pahlavi ten witness-signatures. Journal of- Sa
Asiatic Society (O. S. 1843), p. 353. The Pahlavi and Sanskrit language
borrowed a number of words from each other.

S. K. Saraswati, 4 Survey of Indian Sculpture, p. 71.

W.W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, p. 393. i
A- K. Coomaraswamy, Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, pp: 3 30-31:
H. Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, I, 347,
NG A. Smith, A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, p. 10.

- 782

30.
31.

eR

32.

33,
34,
35.
36.

D

37.
38.
39,
40,
41.
42.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER II

Indeed, there is no iconographical representation of Asoka himself.
Saraswati, A Survey of Indian Sculpture, p. 66. For a discussion of these
motifs and of Greek influences, direct or indirect, on Indian art, see Smith,
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, pp. 64-69.

Some scholars would put the date later. The word Karsa (pana) and the
weight standard of the early punch-marked coins are probably Persian.
S. K. Chatterji, Indian Drama, p. 8.

Rig Veda, X, 95.

W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, pp. 375-76.

Ibid., p. 376. Indeed, later in the same chapter (p. 408) he says that “...
there was nothing that was to be permanent there, not even the Buddha-
statue.”

Lily Ross Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Empire, p. 1.

Journal of Hellenic Studies, XLVII (1927), 206-19.

Cambridge Ancient History, VII, 18.

W. W. Tarn, Hellenistic Civilization, pp. 45ff.

Taylor, The Divinity of the Roman Empire, p. 11.

For a fuller discussion of Greek hero-worship, See L. R. Farnell, Greek
Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality.

. Ernest Barker in Cyril Bailey (ed.), The Legacy of Rome, p. 49.
: Cambridge Ancient History, VU, 15.

WE, Badian, Studies in Greek History, p. 202.

W.W. Tarn, Alexander the Great (Narrative).

TER Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 237.

- Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, p. 97.

Dodds, ‘The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 238.

F a The Legacy of Rome, p. 51.

t may be of some interest to note that the Stoics had resurrected the idea
of Logos, especially the use of the term. It was the fundamental idea of
î ruling cosmic principle, emanating from the ineffable and indefinable
= Solute, pr pounded by Heraclitus. In defining Logos, Heraclitus applied
t e technique of paradox. “It will be called Zeus; it will not be called Zeus.
: technique is also found in the Upanishads, and indeed the bracketing
ees is typically Indian. A. C. Bouquet, Indo-Asian Culture, October
co 1 p. 213. Between Heraclitus and Zeno, however, it had become more
Mimon to use the term Nous, but Stoics preferred the earlier word, Logos.

0

783

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Thus, the Logos-concept became central to their philosophy, dish

A odging
the Nous of Aristotle.

52. Cited in H. Lloyd-Jones (ed.), The Greeks, pp. 132-33.

53. W. W. Tarn has described Posidonius as “the last great intellectual
force which Hellenism, untouched by Rome, produced...” Hellenistic
Civilization, p. 288.

54. E. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, p. 94.

55. Barber, The Legacy of Rome, p. 54.

56. Ibid., p. 50.

57. John Bowle, Western Political Thought, p. 74.

58. John Bowle, 4 New Outline of World History, p. 99.

59. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, p. 240.

60. “The dignity of character achieved and admired by the leaders of Graeco-
Roman civilization owed more to it than to any other philosophy...” John
Bowle, Western Political Thought, p. 76.

61. Ibid. p. 70.

62. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, p. 69.

Notes to Chapter III

1. Michael Grant, The World of Rome, p. 4.

2. According to Kern, ancient Indians possibly called it Yavanapura, the city
of the Yavanas (Greeks).

3.- According to William Robertson, the chief object of Alexander in founding
Alexandria was to secure the advantages arising from the trade with India,
and Ptolemy, who was in Alexander’s confidence, knew of Alexanders
object. An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which the
Ancients Had of India, p- 35. A

4. Fora brief and up-to-date account of Alexandria, see E. Badian, Studies
in Greek and Roman History, pp. 179-92.

5

. M. Rostovtzeff in Cambridge Ancient History, VII, 194.
. “An army could advance along the ‘Royal Road’ at the rate of nearly Wh:

iles
5 is
a day, and the ease with which Alexander overthrew the Persian se
partly to be explained by the excellent system of communications y

f 0)
le for his advancing army.” Lee C. Bailey (ed.), The £8"

i 784

om

17,

18,

19
20

21,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

See Bjorn Landstrom, The Quest for India.

M. P. Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire, p.

58.

The Roman forces at Carrhae were led by Marcus Crassus, Consultriumvir
of Rome and Governor of Syria. The battle of Carrhae was one of the most
disastrous in the history of Rome; about twenty thousand Roman soldiers,
including Crassus and his son, were killed and ten thousand taken prisoner.
Itwas at this battle that the Romans first saw articles of silk—the brilliantly
coloured, gold-embroidered banners of the Parthians.

. H. G. Rawlinson, Intercourse Between India and the Western World, pp.

90-91.

. Strabo, Geography, IL, 5, 12. Describing the location of India later, Strabo

calls India “the greatest of all nations and the happiest in lot.” II, 5, 32.

. Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire, p. 59.
. Rostovtzeff in Cambridge Ancient History, VII, 154.

- l understand that a computer study of the work is under way at present

(1967) in London.

A.B. Keith, 4 History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 461.
. D.D. Kosambi, “An Introduction to the Study of Indian History,” Journal

of Royal Asiatic Society, p. 200. For a quick resume of the work regarding
the dating of the Arthasastra, see K. A. N. Sastri, The Age of the Nandas
and Mauryas, pp. 190-201.
In recent years it has come to be increasingly held that the tradition of
Hippalus is false. Certainly, the evidence on which the tradition is based
1s too thin,
“The importance of this fact will be realised,” comments Rawlinson, “when
We recollect that, up to the opening of the overland route in 1838, it took
travellers from five to eight months to reach India. India was nearer to
utope in the first century a.D. than at any time up to the middle of the
‘neteenth.” G, T. Garratt (ed.), The Legacy of India, p. 16.

. eatt Lous, Ancient Rome at Work, p. 235.
- Of the Jewels, the Romans were especially fond of beryls and pearls. The

Rg beryl mines that existed in South India at Padiyur and Vaniyambadi
Cre a great source of wealth.

I iehi

of a fifteenth century it sold at two shillings a po sere ee

n Modern value would be well above a hundred shillings a poun ne
Ot easy to cal culate a modern equivalent of denarii, but a Roman soldier

785

22.
23.
24.
25.

26.
27.

28.
29.

30.

31.
32.

33.

34.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

on duty in Egypt received two hundred and twenty-five denarii (or nine
hundred sesterces) annually, or fifteen pounds of pepper per year; or for
one Roman pound of cinnamon more than sixty-six Roman soldiers could
be employed to fight in Egypt for a year.

Pliny, Natural History, VI, 26.

Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, TI, 33; Il, 53.

Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Emipre, p. 67.
Ancient Indians, it appears, originally used the term Yavana for the
Tonian-Greeks, but later for all foreigners from the West. Somewhat ina
similar manner, modern Indians use the term Angrez, the English, for all
Westerners.

Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers, p. 209.

Dion Chrysostom, Orations, XXXII, 373. In another oration (XLIX, 538),
he mentions that Indian Brahmins excel in self-control, righteousness, and
love of God.

Pausanias, Hellados Periegisis, III, 12; IV, 34; VII, 29.

Arrian (96-180), who distinguished himself as a philosopher, statesman,
soldier, and historian, also wrote the more important and famous Anabasis
of Alexander, the life of Alexander. The Elder Pliny’s (23-79) work deals
with a variety of subjects. Ptolemy's treatise on geography forms the sequel
to his famous work on astronomy. Both his works remained standard works
until modern times. Yet, little is known of him except that he flourished
in Alexandria about the middle of the second century A.D.

The Erythraean Sea was the name given by the Greek and Roman
geographers to the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea and the Persian
Gulf. This work appears to have been composed about the middle or the
second half of the first century. Some scholars have lately suggested that
the work belongs to about 300.

B. P. Groslier, Indo-China, p. 49.

B. A. Saletore, India’s Diplomatic Relations with the West, p. 230.
The commercial character of the Indian missions to Augustus is now Une
evident. Strabo speaks of a communication to Augustus from an n
king seeking assistance in any good enterprise. Sce Geography, XV,
73.

For a discussion of the theme, see Saletore, India’s Diplomatic Relation
with the West, pp. 210-67.

E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1, 319.

786

43.

È

45

46.

47

48,

49
50,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

_ Saletore, India’s Diplomatic Relations with the West, p. 271.
Grant, The World of Rome, p. 189.

John Bowle, A New Outline of World History, p. 118.

. H. G. Wells, The Outline of History, p. 273.

| Gilbert Murray, Hellenism and the Modern World, p. 14.

_ Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, pp. 2-3.

. Tenney Frank, “Racial Mixture in the Roman Empire,” The American

Historical Quarterly, XXI (1961), 689-708. Tacitus has been accused of

exposing Roman anti-Semitism, and of grossly distorting facts. S. Davis,

Race-Relations in Ancient Egypt, pp. 161-63.

Hippolytus died as a martyr in 235. He was one of the most prolific writers

of the early Church and was elected rival Bishop of Rome in 217 by those

people who were opposed to Pope Callistus.

. Jean Filliozat, “La doctrine brahmanes d'apres saint Hippolyte,” Revue de
l'Histoire des Religions (1945), pp. 59-91; Les relations exterieures de l'inde
(1956), pp. 31-60.

. Wilhelm Holmqvist, Acta Archaelogica, XXV (Copenhagen,. 1954); Viking

(Oslo, 1957-58); William Holmqvist, Birgit Archemus, Per Lundstrom

Viltterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Stockholm, 1961). Cited in

Buddha Prakash, India and the World, p. 268.

Many Catholic monasteries in mediaeval Europe, however, served as

schools, hospitals, orphanages, and old peoples homes.

Asoka was so influenced by the ethical tenets of the Buddhist “Law of

Piety,” even more than by the theory of nirvana which has often been

Mistakenly described as pessimistic, that he changed his name from

Asoka, the Sorrowless One, to Piya-dasi (Sanskrit Priya-darsin), the

Compassionate One.

a i Ne Buddhist Councils were held at Rajagaha and Vesali i

iar : 3 respectively,

» Oxford History of India, p. 134. $

: Mabavamsa, XXIX, 37-39. This Convent of Alexandria is also mentioned

n 483

in
s a later work, the Thupavamsa.

5 3 doctrine of the Four Noble Truths is expounded in various Buddhist
Pres, such as the Digha Nikaya the Majjhima Nikaya, he Sutta Pirata

a $
% Nd the Vinaya Pitaka.

€ name Milinda is an Indian adaptation of the Greek word Menandros.
cient authors used various other Indian forms of the Greek King's name.

787

53.
54,
55.

56.

57.
58.

59.

60.

61.
62. It seems likely that the Roman rulers, having failed to evolve 4 a
_ teligion for the Empire themselves, looked upon Christianity as *

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

For example, Ksemendra’s Avadanakalpalata calls him by the same name
Milindra, as that which is found in the Bstan-hygur collection, commonh,
known as Tanjur, of the Tibetan Tripitaka. The Shinkot casket inscription
in the Kharoshthi script, which speaks of his missionary activities in
spreading Buddhism in the northwest and beyond, gives his n
Menadra.

Mahavamsa, XII, 34-36.

Sir Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, UW, 450.

T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India, p. 257. According to
Hstian-tsang, Persia was rich but its people were by nature impulsive and
violent. “They did not care for learning and gave themselves entirely to
works of art which were very popular in the neighbouring countries.

Cf. McCrindle, Ancient India as described in Classical Literature, p. 185.
“Terebinthus proclaimed himself learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians
and gave out that his name was no longer Terebinthus but that he was a
new Buddha (Buddas) and that he was born of a virgin. Terebinthus was
the disciple of Scythianus, who was born in Palestine and who traded with
India.”

A. S. Altekar, Indo-Asian Culture, October 1958, pp. 120-21.

Cited in A. R. Vidler, Objections to Christian Beljef, p. 59. Bernard Shaw
put it in his characteristic way: “What Christ said would have been just S
true if he had lived in a country house with an income of £5,000 a year.
In recent years, Western theologians have renewed their effort to modernize
the traditional Christian orthodoxy and present the faith in terms which
are comprehensible to present-day man. To restate, reiterate, and defend
the ancient dogma in exactly the same language is to strain the religious
integrity and intellectual ability of the believer as much as of the pet
and of the layman. An expression of this view is found in the muc
discussed book by John A. T. Robinson, Honest to God.

In a recent publication, The Death of Jesus, Joel Carmichael has OB
to prove that Jesus thought of himself as no more than the herald of z
imminent material transformation of the world, and to achieve his putP es
he led an armed insurrection, which led to his violent death.
H. G. Wells, 4 Short History of the World, p. 147.

nly

ame as

universal

x 1 :
‘gaining success where they had failed, and thus were urged into taki?8
ë attitude to its expansion.

788

63.

64.
65.

66.

67.

68.

69

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

Rudolf Bultmann, Primitive Christianity in its Contemporary Setting, p-

11.

Morton Enslin, Christian Beginnings, p. 147.

The word “Heaven” is sometimes used for “God” as a reverential Jewish
way of avoiding the use of the divine name. The second of the ten Mosaic
commandments, in any case, forbids the taking of God’s name “in vain.”
According to Carmichael, the concept of “Son of God” is an inadvertent
development of the Greek expression of the term, “Servant of God,” often
used to describe Jesus by himself and his immediate disciples. The word
used in Greek for servant, pais, also has the meaning child. Pais is used
throughout the earliest Greek translations of the Old Testament for those
people who are particularly in harmony with God's will: “The mere fact
that the same word in Greek means both ‘servant’ and ‘child’ and that a
similar expression was used in reference to Jesus, doubtless facilitated the
transformation of the phrase ‘servant’ or ‘child of God’ and this gave a
specific and, as it were, concrete aid to the magnifying effect of the early
Christology.” The Death of Christ, p. 205.

An important consequence of this discovery was that the earlier belief,
that no really old perishable antiquities could ever be found in the area
because of the prevailing dampness of the climate, was disproved. ‘They
had overlooked the extremely unusual geological fault of the Rift Valley
that runs from Syria down into Africa and which reaches its lowest level
around the Dead Sea. More than a thousand feet below sea level, the cliffs
bordering the western side lie in a rain shadow. The sun shines into the
basin for most of the year, and the caves in the limestone cliffs are kept
dry as a desert. Inevitably, archaeologists poured into the area, and the
Western side of the Dead Sea, called in the Bible the Wilderness of Judah,
has yielded rich harvests of antiquities, including wooden implements some

‘bx thousand years old, which have been preserved remarkably well.

One of the important consequences of the discovery of these texts, as some
distinction

of them are written in Greek, may be the blurring of the sharp
usually made between the Judaism of the Holy Land and the Judaism oe
the Dispersion, There was much traffic between Jerusalem and Alexandria,
and the quasi-monastic Therapeutai described by Philo look as though they
ae i Some sense related to the Qumran sect. A. D. Nock, Early Crate
Mg anity and its Hellenistic Background, p. x-
“ay, Hellenism and the Modern World, p. 17.

789

70.

71.
72.
73.
74.
75.

76.

77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.

84.

85.
86. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, V, 401.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Nero is reported by Pliny the Elder to have been initiated into the cult
of Mithras in 66 by a magi priest. He insisted on being worshipped as a
sun god. About three centuries later, the Emperor Julian tried to make
Mithraism the state religion but his death prevented this, Few other
emperors kept direct contact with the Mithraic practices. Mithraism,
however, was not a court religion, and was long regarded
a creed to be included amongst public faiths.

W. K. C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion, pp. 264-68.

Ibid., p. 269.
Rudolf Bultmann, Primitive Christianity, pp. 177-78.
Thid, p. 178.

Of the three hundred bishops present at this council of Nicaea, only six
were from the West.

as too personal

‘The earliest known reference to the Christian ceremony is that in St. Paul's
First Epistle to the Corinthians written some twenty-five years after the
Crucifixion.

A. Powell Davies, Dead Sea Scrolls, os Dil.

Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, M, 430.

J. M. Creed in S. R. K. Glanville (ed.), The Legacy of Egypt, p. 300.

E. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics, p. 69.

Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, p. x.

See T. Frank, Aspects of Social Behaviour in Ancient Rome, p. 37.

Edward Gibbon, who had become a convert to Roman Catholicism whilst
at Oxford, and not long after a profound sceptic, listed five principal causes
of the success of Christianity: a) The inflexible, i.e. the intolerant, zeal of
the Christians, derived from the Jewish religions; b) the doctrine of a future
life; c) the miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church; d) the pus.
and austere morals of the Christians; and e) the union and discipline 2
the Christian republic. See The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire s
Abridgement), p. 144. Gibbon found Christianity on the whole distastelt 7
and the pretensions of the bishops even more so, and the claims of Roms E
maintain spiritual pre-eminence after the fall of the Empire a ani
fraud. He found Christians’ intolerance, whether practiced against e
religions or against members of the Church, particularly unpleasant
Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, Ul. 434.

Sidney Spencer, Mysticism in World Religion, p. 148.

790

94,

95.
96,

M
98.

99,

10
10

e e

102, M

103

> Arthur Os

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

- Hendrik Kraemer, World Cultures and World Religions, p. 239.

_R. Otto, The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, p. 178.

|. Ibid., p- 187.

_ S. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religion and Western Thought, p. 162.

_ Otto, The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, p. 206. Kaushitahi Upanishad,

1,2-7.

. Otto, The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, p. 398.
. Theologians are divided two ways. One belief stresses the reality of the

presence of the Kingdom of God transforming this life through judgement
and mercy, thereby rendering the motif that “the Kingdom is yet to come”
of minor significance. Whereas the other definitely holds the view that the
Kingdom is yet to come.

Otto, The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man, p. 20.

Ibid., p. 25.

T. W. Rhys Davids, Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1923, pp. 43-44. Cited
in Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 173.
Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 176.

Most scholars now believe that Mark wrote first, but there are some others
who argue for the priority of Matthew.

W. R. Inge, Platonic Tradition in English Religious Thought, p. 10.

- Sutta Nipata, TII, 11, 1-21; Gospel of St. Luke, Ch. 2.
- There is, however, no reference to the virgin birth of Jesus in the Epistles

which constitute the earliest Christian documents. The earliest Gospel
of St. Mark does not mention it, nor does the Gospel of St. John, nor
the Book of Revelation. On the contrary, Paul speaks of Jesus as “made
Of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1 :3), that is to say,
of the seed of Joseph, David’s descendant. The story first appears in the
oE Luke, which tells us that Mary conceived her child by the
ae Ghost before consummation of her marriage with Joseph. The story
5 developed later in the Gospel of St. Matthew. A recent writer, Leslie
; Weatherhead, has in The Christian Agnostic suggested that A really
appened was that Zacharias committed adultery with Mary in a sacred
marriage.”
F Hindu incarnations, Rama and Krishna, too, were born in the warrior
borne, Buddhism and Christianity in the n ee P,

14, 2
Owever, there are other gods and demi-gods w:

791

104.

105.

106.

107.
108.
109.
110.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

mothers whose names were variations of Mary: for example, Adonis, son
of Myrrha; Hermes, son of Maia; Cyrus, son of Mariana or Mandane;
Moses, son of Miriam; Buddha, son of Maya; and Joshua, son of Miriam,
Because of this, Mary being somewhat of a stock substitute name for "1
divine mother, some scholars have suggested the possibility of
different name for Jesus’ mother.

Christ wrote nothing, nor did the Buddha, nor Muhammad. It is indeed
curious that the men whose ideas have influenced human thought most,
did little to ensure the accuracy of their teaching by reducing it to writing
under their supervision.

Osborne, Buddhism and Christianity in the Light of Hinduism, p- 10. Ina
recent publication, Yoga and the Bible, Joseph Leeming has endeavoured
to show that the basic teachings of the New Testament and some parts of
the Bible are essentially similar to the fundamental truths taught for ages
by the teachers of Shabad Yoga; Shabad, meaning divine or inner sound,
refers to the power which in the Bible is called the Word or Logos. The
Yoga of the divine word, or Shabad Yoga, is a system of meditation and
other spiritual practices, which takes its followers to the highest attainable
states of spiritual consciousness.

a completely

The Hindus too expect the tenth Avarar (incarnation), the last of the
series.

Max Müller, Last Essays, 1st Series, 1901, p. 285.

Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 184.

Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, Ill, 443.

M. Huc wrote: “The cross, the mitre, the dalmatica; the cope, which the
Grand Lamas wear on their journeys; the service with double choirs; the
psalmody, the exorcisms; the censer, suspended from five chains; the
benedictions, the chaplet, ecclesiastical celibacy, spiritual retirement the
worship of the saints; the fasts, the processions, the litanies, the holy-
water—all these are analogies between the Buddhists and ourselves. ae
can it be said that these analogies are of Christian origin? We think so.
have indeed found, neither in the traditions nor in the monuments ef 3
country, any positive proof of their adoption; still it is perfectly legiti™ at
to put forward conjectures which possess all the characteristics of the m° i
emphatic probability.” Cited in N. Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Cort!
pp- xiv-xv. More than a century before Hue in 1714 Father Diserdi W

A ices.
also struck by similarities between his own faith and Lamaistic pac

. €
»in 1661, Father Grueber, together with another priest, Dorvil!
e a 792

111.

112.

113.

114.
115.
116,
117,

118

120, C
n2,

te J. Bidez in Cambridge Ancient History, XIL, 614.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

passed through Tibet on their return from Peking, and he noticed what
Henry Princep describes as “the extraordinary similarity” between the
doctrines and the rituals of the Buddhists of Lhasa and those of his own
Roman faith. Cited in Arthur Little, India in Primitive Christianity,
p. 220.

Osborne, Buddhism and Christianity in the Light of Hinduism, pp. 118-
19.

It has been suggested that possibly a Christian mission under St. Thomas
had come to the court of the Indo-Parthian King Gondophares at the
beginning of the Christian era, although the mission seems to have left
no impression. See S. N. Dasgupta (ed.), A History of Sanskrit Literature,
I, ciii.

A recent report claiming the discovery of a small urn containing the
remains of St. Thomas in Mosul, northern Iraq, has been disputed by
Indian Christians who claim that the relics of the apostle were removed
from Madras to Lisbon and that this fact is further corroborated by an
important document recently found in Lisbon. This document is a four
page letter, dated 27 December 1535, written to the King of Portugal from
the Church of St. Thomas in Mylapore. It is signed by twelve Portuguese
inhabitants. See The Hindu Weekly, 26 October 1964.

M. Vacherot, Histoire Critique de Ecole d'Alexandrie, II, 250.

Dean Mansel, The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries, p. 32.

Dean Milman, History of Christianity, Il, 41.

Itis curious that Apollonius, who was once considered a rival of Jesus, was
born in the same year as Jesus, and was likewise said to have been born
of the union of a god with his mother, to whom the coming birth was
announced somewhat similarly as in the Christian tale. But the tale of
Miraculous conception is associated with a number of divine or semidivine
personages,

and was a term used from

The word isi i ledge.
gnosis is Greek, meaning knowleage, the divine. Later,

the early days of philosophy to designate the science of nee
< Orphyry called “the Antique or Oriental philosophy” gnosis to arune at
it from the Grecian systems. The term was also used in the technical
‘ense of “superior or celestial knowledge” by the Jewish philosophers at
€xandria.
R W King, The Gnostics and Their Remains, p- X-

“dolf Bultmann, Primitive Christianity, p- 162.

793

122.
123.

124.

125.
126.
127.

128.
129.
130.
131.
132.
133.

134.

135.

136.

A Platonist, ;

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

W. R. Inge, Mysticism in Religion, p. 106.

During the first four centuries, all that the Christian Church denounced

phy as its genuine
fountain-head. Yet, a considerable part of what was accepted as orthodox
also came from the same source. See King, The Gnostics and Their Remains

h
pp. vi-vii.

as heretical may be traced to Indian speculative philoso

Kennedy says of Gnosticism, “It is Buddhist pure and simple—Buddhist
in its governing ideas, its psychology, its metaphysics.” Cited in
Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 205.

King, The Gnostics and Their Remains, p. 6.

Ibid., p. 165.

Ibid., pp. 16-21. Whittaker, who regards Gnosticism in contrast to
Neoplatonism as a direct outgrowth of the East, says that the Gnostic
claim that the spiritual men alone possess true knowledge could have
given it, under favourable circumstances, “a starting point of Christian
Brahmanism.” Thomas Whittaker, The Neo-Platonist, p. 222.
Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 200.

Sir Flinders Petrie, Egypt and Israel, p. 113.

Sidney Spencer, Mysticism in World Religion, p. 153.

Stromata, VI, 14, 114; VI, 7, 58.

Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 233.

In antiquity the philosophers, who are now called Neoplatonists, called
themselves simply Platonists. So did the philosophers of the seventh century
and the Renaissance who drew their inspiration from Neoplatonism.
Amongst his predecessors are counted his teacher Ammonius Saccas;
Posidonius, the Stoic teacher of Cicero; and Numenius, whose influence
on Plotinus was considerable.

Indeed, other great men in history did likewise. Christ wrote nothing, ug
did the Buddha; Muhammad was illiterate; Socrates was content to a
Gandhi never systematically co-ordinated and formalized his great bu
of mixed writings. ich
These three had made a compact not to disclose any of the doctrines whic
Ammonius had revealed to them. Plotinus kept faith and divulged nothing
of his teacher’s system, but the compact was broken first by Erennius te
later by Origen. It is interesting that the two persons who emerged int

; A ines
_ third century as great religious teachers propounding divergent docto”

ee ve ame
were students of Ammonius Saccas, who was born a Christian, but bec

794

137.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER III

Stephen MacKenna (trans.), Plotinus’ The Enneads, p. xiii.

138. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, pp. 210-11.
139. George Goodwin, The Great Mystics, p. 27.

140.

Even W. R. Inge thinks that in Plotinus, theory of vision there is “the direct
influence of Oriental philosophy of the Indian type.” Christian Mysticism,
p. 901.

141. Bidez in Cambridge Ancient History, XII, 623.

142.

Not only is there evidence that Indian scholars, both Buddhists and
Brahmans, visited and resided in Western capitals, but there is evidence
that Indian faiths were practiced in some parts of Asia Minor in pre-
Christian times. The Syrian writer, Zenob, tells us of the worship of Krishna
in Armenia at least in the second and third centuries B.c. Temples dedicated
to Krishna were set up near the Lake Van. Zenob says that early in the
fourth century A.D. there were about five thousand followers of Krishna in
Armenia. It is also pointed out that the Hindus had resisted the demolition
of temples by the early Christians.

143. W. R. Inge, Mysticism in Religion, p. 109.

144.

145.

146,

147,

14g,
149,

He appears to have believed in two world-souls: one good, the other bad.
He had adopted the theory of rebirth. Stutfield maintains that Indian
mysticism had reached Alexandria which “blossomed forth in Plotinus”
and passed into Christian thought through “the monk mystic and
theosophical pantheist, the so-called Dionysus the Areopagite.” Mysticism
and Catholicism, p. 34.
“An influence of Indian thought on the Gnostics and Neoplatonists may
be held to be more likely, and it would be unjust to rule it out of Court.”
A.B. Keith, 4 History of Sanskrit Literature, pp- 500-01.
Bidez in Cambridge Ancient History, XII, 633. The Christians in the aith
century destroyed the work of Porphyry, Against the Christians, written in
fifteen books, but extracts from it which have survived in the Christian
polemical writing, indicate that it was a powerful and intelligent attack on
Christianity.
ERD odds, Proclus, the Elements of Theology, p. *XV-
Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Though
ie Was venerated in the sixth century by St. Gregory his words were ea
qs Third Council of Constantinople in 692 and at the Second Council of

icaea, and St. John the Damascene became his follower. In the thirteenth
“entury the Church denounced him, but his influence amongst the mystics
patie fourteenth century rose again. :

795

f, p. 238.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

150. Radhakrishnan, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 240,

151. It was St. Paul who began the process of stressing

the divinity of Christ
and Athanasius (ca. 295~373) who formulated the doctrine of the Trinity
accepted at Nicaea. S

Notes to Chapter IV

1,

Whilst references to Arab peoples and tribes are found in many biblical
passages and in Genesis itself, the first mention of the name of these
peoples, whose etymology is not clear, occurs in an inscription of the

Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (853 8.c.).

. The only certain source concerning the life of Muhammad (etymologically

the name means “the much praised one”) is the Quran itself, followed by the
canonical biography, Sira, composed a century later in the eighth century.
However, the year of the Prophet's birth is uncertain; 570 is accepted as
an approximation. Muhammad was the posthumous son of the merchant
Abdullah, and was brought up first by his grandfather Abd al-Mutta lib,
and later by an uncle, Abu Talib, father of Ali, who was to become the
fourth Caliph and the Prophet's son-in-law.

- Richard Bell has advanced a new theory suggesting three periods in the

composition of the Quran. See A. C. Bouquet, Comparative Religion, p-
275.

- Reporting his victory to Caliph Umar, he remarked: “I have captured a city

from the description of which I shall refrain. Suffice it to say that I have
seized therein 4,000 villas with 4,000 baths, 40,000 poll-tax paying Jews
and 4,000 palaces of entertainment for the royalty.”

- (1) The story makes its first appearance more than five hundred years after

the event to which it relates;

(2) on analysis the Story resolves into absurdities;

(3) the principal actor in the story, viz. John Philoponus, was dead long
before the Saracens entered Egypt;

(4) of the two great public libraries to which the story could refer (a) the
Museum Library perished in the conflagration caused by Julius Or
or, if not, at a date not less than four hundred years anterior to heda
Conquest, whilst (b) the Serapium Library either was removed prio! e
the year 391 A.D. or was then dispersed and destroyed; so that in any gs

l it disappeared two and a half centuries before the conquest;

S 6

aD

co

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER IV

(5) the fifth, sixth, and early seventh century literature contains no mention
of the existence of any such library;

(6) if, nevertheless, it had existed when Cyrus set his hand to the treaty
surrendering Alexandria, yet the books would almost certainly have been
removed—under the clause permitting the removal of valuables—during
the eleven months armistice which intervened between the signature of the
convention and the actual entry of the Arabs into the city; and

(7) if the Library had been removed, or if it had been destroyed, the almost
contemporary historian and man of letters John of Nikiou, could not have
passed over its disappearance in total silence.

The conclusion of the whole matter can be no longer doubtful. The
suspicion of Renaudot and the scepticism of Gibbon are more than
justified. One must pronounce that the Abu'l Faraj story is a mere fable,
totally destitute of historical foundation. See Albert J. Butler, The Arab
Conquest of Egypt, p. 424.

. Palestine and Syria fell to the Arabs by 640, Iraq a year later, Egypt by 642,

Tripolitania by 647, Persia by 650, Afghanistan by 661 in which year the
seat of the Caliphate was moved from Medina to Damascus, Tunisia by
693, Algeria and Morocco by 705, and Spain in 711.

- Many Arab historians, with some justification, decline to accord the title

of Caliphate to the reigns of Muawiya and his successors, with the sole
exception of Umar II (717-20) who is accepted as Caliph with kingship
(mula). The Caliphate is regarded to have lapsed until 750 when it was
resumed with the ascendancy of the Abbasid dynasty of Iran.

$ George Sarton, The Life of Science, p. 145.
R.A. Nicholson, 4 Literary History of the Arabs, p. 259. r
The name of the great capital, founded by Caliph Mansur, itself is said

to be of Indian origin; Bagh is Sanskrit Bhaga, meaning God, and az in
o means to give. Baghdad thus meant given by God, or the gift of
od.

' Aa 8, Atiya, Crusade, Commerce and Culture, p- 224.
HAR Gibb in A. J. Rustum and C. K. Zurak (eds.), History of the Arabs

He Arabic Culture, p- 241.
H. Gare on, An Introduction to the History of ‘Medicine.

` Abu Sahl Ali bin Rabban al-Tabari has given at the end of his book,

Pardausul Hikmat, written about 850, a short account of the Indian system

of medicine,

797

15.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Ibn Abi Usaybia, who wrote a general biography of physicians, entitled
Uyun al-Inba fi-Tabaqat al-Atibba, found in Al Hawi and other works of
Al Razi extracts from a number of Indian medical texts.

16. J. Needham, Science and Civilization in China, IV, 13.

1

Bettina Strauss in René Taton (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Science, p.
417.

18. Jose Maria Millas-Vallicrosa, in Guy S. Metraux and Francois Crouzet

19.

20.

21.

22.

(eds.), The Evolution of Science, p. 129.

Of the other popular foods, the domestic fowl is also an Indian contribution
to Western diet. Hieroglyphs from Indian village settlements would
suggest that it has been domesticated for at least five thousand years. Some
varieties are said to have originated from the Indian jungle fowl which still
survives. The larger breeds have no similarity to any wild bird. Like horses,
dogs, and camels, these have apparently completely passed over into the
domesticated state or the wild ancestors have become extinct. For many
centuries the domestic fowl was confined to India. In 1400 s.c. it spread
to China—known in Egypt also about the same time—but it was another
one thousand years or more before Europeans began to raise this bird.
Tea, the national drink of the Anglo-Saxons, is an indirect Indian legacy
to Western civilization. It is also a favoured drink of the Chinese, Japanese,
Russians, and others. The original home of this shrub was Assam, India,
and from there in the third century A.D. it travelled to China and by the
middle of the seventeenth century it appeared in England. In the eighteenth
century “tea gardens” began to appear in London and attracted especially
women who preferred them to the stuffy tea houses in the congested
city. Scholars too were attracted—Dr. Samuel Johnson and Boswell lent
distinction to these gardens.
In 929 he adopted the title of Caliph and thus became the third of the Shs
contemporary independent Caliphs in the Islamic world—the Abbasid in
Baghdad, the Fatimid in North Africa, and the Umayyad in Spain: The
Umayyads ruled from 736 to 1031. i
J. B. Trend in Thomas Arnold and Alfred Guillaume (eds.), Zhe Lega) o
Islam, p. 5.
During the thirteenth century another Muslim centre of learning ha 19-
into prominence at Konya in Turkey during the reign of Alaeddin 1(12 ie
1236). After Nicaea had fallen to the Crusaders in 1017, Konya Lee ies
capital of the Seljuk Sultans and attracted artists, poets, historians, jee

dicome

> enti
_ theologians, and other scholars who were driven westward from C

798

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER V

and Western Asia by the Mongol invasions. The effects of this school on
Western learning are yet to be assessed systematically,

Notes to Chapter V

1.

CONN a A

12,
13.

Recently a national commission consisting of historians, scientists, and
linguists has been appointed to study and compile a history of Indian
science under the supervision of the National Institute of Sciences in

India.

_F.S. Taylor, Science: Past and Present, p. 98.
. B. B. Dey in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern and

Western, I, 470.

. S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, 1, 29.

. Heimann, Facts of Indian Thought, p. 37.

. Rig Veda, X, 129.

. Filliozat in René Taton (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Science, pp. 134-35.

. Taittiriyaka Upanishads, Il, 1, 3. Whilst the theory of many Upanishads

and materialists is that the universe comprises these five elements, there
are other texts, for instance the Chandogya Upanishads (V1, 4), which
subscribe to the theory of three—fire, water, and earth—or four—without
akasa—elements. In the Bhagavad Gita (VII, 4) three more elements—
buddhi (intelligence), ahamkara (self-sense) and manas (mind)—are added
to these five.

- Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, I, 69.
- R. Garbe, Philosophy of Ancient India, p. 30.
S. K. Ramachandra Rao, Development of Psychological Thought, pp- 32-

33.

Prabhavananda, The Spiritual Heritage of- India, pp- 215-16.
B. N. Seal, The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus. A. B.
charged Seal with having read too many modern ideas into old
then Keith himself has been accused, for example by Kosambi, j
Prejudice. However, Seal’s work is unhistorical, devoted principally to logic
ad Philosophical speculations despite its title, and is somewhat obscure:
“re are a number of Indian scholars who place the date of the Rig Veda
Much farther back, ca. 3000 B8.c., and thus claim greater mugh gor
the origins of astrono my in India. The study of Hindu science 1s made
ie Ptionally difficult because the lack of definite chronology often makes
“tremely difficult to debate questions of priority.

799

Keith has
texts. But
of massive

1S:

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.
Ail

22.

23.
24.

75,

26.

27,

Tt later became Zephirum, tziphar, zeuro, ceuro, from which zero W® “fom
short step, The English cipher and French chiffre are directly derive

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Filliozat in Taton (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Science, p. 137.
Ibid, p. 136.

Filliozat in Metraux and Crouzet (eds.), The Evolution of Science, P. 92. For
a detailed discussion of the nakshatras and of Indian astronomy, see P, V,
Kane, History of Dharmesastra, V, Part I, 495-512.

See Nature, CLXVIII (14 July 1951), 64; and Science and Civilization in
China, III, 173-77.

Filliozat in Metraux and Crouzet (eds.) , The Evolution of Science,
91-93.

For further discussion, see ibid., pp. 94-96.

A passage from the Aitareya Brahmana, which dates from about two
thousand years before Copernicus and centuries before Hipparchus,
illustrates Indian interest in astronomy: “The sun never sets nor rises; when
people think to themselves the sun is setting, he only changes about after
teaching the end of the day, and makes night below and day to what is on
the other side. Then when people think he rises in the morning, he only
shifts himself about after reaching the end of the night, and makes day
below and night to what is on the other side. In fact he never does set at

all.”

A. N. Singh in Radhakrishnan (ed.). History of Philosophy. Eastern and
Western, I, 448-49.

Cited in B. K. Sarkar, Hindu Achievements in Exact Science, p- 30.

Over the door of the Academy was inscribed in Greek “A Credit in
Mathematics is required” and one of Plato’s sayings was “God is always
doing Geometry.”

Singh in Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern and Wester,
I, 431.

Heimann, Facets of Indian Thought, p. 24 and also pp. 95-104. It “is ee
single cipher, positive or negative (growth and decay) but the unifying po!”
of indifference and the matrix of the All and the None. Zero produces
figures, but is itself not limited to a certain Value. It is Sunya, the primary
or final reservoir of all single shapes and numbers.”

‘The Hindus called it sunya, and it passed on to the Arabs as as-sift ae
s

PP.

the

Arabi

c original as-siff,
lam, The Wonder That Was India, p- 496.

— 800

29.

30.

31.
32.

37,

38

39

40

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER V

Filliozat is of the opinion that it could not have been written before the
tenth century. Filliozat in Taton (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Science, p.
423. The Bakshali Manuscript consisting of seventy leaves of birch bark
was found in 1881.

Singh in Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern and Western,
1, 433. The Aryabhatiya is indeed a remarkable example of Indian
accomplishment in mathematics. An eminent Indian scholar Singh goes
even to the extent of saying that the Aryabhatiya “contains practically the
whole of arithmetic that we teach today in our High Schools.”

Filliozat in Metraux and Crouzet (eds.), The Evolution of Science, p. 104.
“This method is declared by a high mathematical authority (Hankel) to be
the most delicate operation in the theory of numbers that had been achieved
before the time of the great French astronomer Lagrange (eighteenth
century).” A. A. MacDonell, India’s Past, p. 192.

. F. Cajori, A History of Mathematics, p. 97.

. “‘Ifhis works were not written in Greek no one would think for a moment

that they were the product of a Greek mind.” Ibid., p. 60.

J. Struik, 4 Concise History of Mathematics, pp. 85-86.
. How well developed algebra was in India can be easily realized when

it is compared with the work of Diophantus, who is looked upon as a
fountainhead of Western mathematical thought. According to Thomas
Heath, the Europeans were anticipated by the Hindus in the symbolic
form of algebra, and Williams points out that the Chinese were familiar
with Indian mathematics, and, in fact, continued to study it long after the
period of intellectual intercourse between India and China had ceased.
Cited in Sarkar, Hindu Achievements in Exact Science, p. 14.

The Sulvasutra rules yield a rectangle equal to a given square, with V2
and V2 as the sides of the rectangle; they yield by geometrical

2

“onstruction a square equal to a given rectangle and satisfying the relation ab
= (b+ [a-b] 2% (a-b)?, corresponding to Euclid Il, 5, Cajori, A History
f Mathematics, p. 86.

" Singh in Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern and Western

L 437-39,

| oe Radhakrishnan (ed.), Æ History of Philosophy: Eastern and Western,
5

` Cited in L. White Te EA Historical Review, April 1960, P: 516.

801

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

41. J. Needham, Science and Civilization in China, IV, 282.

42. P. Ray (ed.), History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India, pp.
114-1.5.

43. This Nagarjuna is often confused with the great founder of the Madhyamika
School of Buddhist philosophy, and a creator of Mahayana Buddhism,

44. White Jr., American Historical Review, April 1960, pp- 522-26. J. Needham's
suggestion that this concept may have originated from naive observation
of the water-driven chime clocks is not supported, as White points out, by
any evidence at all. The idea of perpetual motion never appeared in China,
nor is there any evidence that word of such clocks reached India where this
concept really emerged.

45. Ayurvedic medicine is expounded, not only in popular recipe books, but
also in textbooks intended for the many Ayurvedic Medical Colleges,
which are at present more numerous than the modern medical colleges. In
the Ayurvedic schools, whilst diagnoses and the corresponding methods
of treatment are generally based on the traditional system, urinalyses are
performed in accordance with modern ideas, and surgical methods are also
up to date. The Ayurvedic medicine is also practiced because of its practical
value for India. Short of medical doctors, India finds these Ayurvedic
vaidyas (doctors) almost indispensable. Moreover, Ayurvedic drugs are
relatively cheap, whilst modern drugs are too expensive for the majority of
the people. It is, however, seriously expected that the study of traditional
remedies, diets, and methods of treatment will help to enrich medicine as
a whole, because many Indian drugs are being used with profit in modern
therapy.

46. S. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy, IL, 273. An excellent study ge
the history of ancient Indian medicine is Filliozat, The Classical Doctrine
of Indian Medicine, originally published in French in 1949.

47. The following hymn is meant to cure leprosy by the use of a dark-colo
plant:

ured

Born in the night wast thou, O herb,
Dark-coloured sable, black of hue:
Rich-tinted, tinge this leprosy,
And stain away its spots of grey!
(Artharva Veda, I, 23) Fife
48. Ayur Veda literally means the knowledge of longevity or science ©

as
‘These texts, modified and appropriately amended, are still regarde
authoritative.

802

63.

64,
65,
66,

67,
68,
69,
70,

7

- Ra

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER V

Sarton, Introduction to the History-of Science, 1, 77.

, Filliozat, The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine, pp- 11-25.

A. L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, p. 499.

. For speculations in Indian medicine, see S. Dasgupta, A History of Indian

Philosophy, Il, Ch. XII.

| Filliozat in Metraux and Crouzet (eds.), The Evolution of Science, p. 96.
_ P. Kutumbiah, Ancient Indian Medicine, p. 34.

. He points out the remarkable resemblances amongst the Indian theories

and the Hippocratic treatise on The Winds and Plato’s Timaeus which are
indicative of Indian influence.

. Jolly has given a list of analogies between Indian and Greek medical systems

in his Indian Medicine.

. Filliozat, The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine, p. 226.

. Sarton, A History of Science, I, 373.

. Filliozat, The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine, p. 232.

. F. H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, p. 72.

. Cited in G. N. Banerjee, Hellenism in Ancient India, p. 178.

- Auscultation was introduced in Europe by R. T. H. Laennec (1781-

1826).

The practice of inoculation was introduced in England in 1721, and it

was Edward Jenner who discovered that small-pox could be prevented by

Vaccination.

Calder, Medicine and Man, p. 49.

Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, p. oe

Sir James Young Simpson (1811-1870), is regarded as having introduced

anaesthetics to Western medicine.

Filliozat in Taton (ed.), Ancient and Medieval Science, p- 157.

Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, p- E

T. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, 1, 285-86.

Heimann, Facets of Indian Thought, p. 39.

msay Macdonald, a former Prime Minister of Britain

5 witnessed the death of plants as demonstrated by Bosein

as described his experience thus: Cc
Tspent part of my last day in Calcutta in the laboratory of Boise -
Bose at the Presidency College. I had heard him once in England .
à weird lecture on the poisoning of metals, and I had not forgotten

(1924 and 1929-
Calcutta and

803

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

impressive ending of his discourse when he recalled the ancient science
of his people, and left us with expectation that the breath of awakening
might even then be blowing across the subtle intelligence of India and

be giving birth to a new epoch of scientific discovery.
In Calcutta that day, he took up the parable he left unfinished at the
Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. By various strange devices he
showed us how plants indicated that they felt blows inflicted upon them,
how they shrank, how they shuddered, and, most mysterious ofall, how
they died. A flickering beam of light passed right and left along a scale
as the sterns and leaves we were torturing protested against our cruelties,
until the point was reached when no more response came. At that point
a shudder passed through the fibers of the plant, just as the muscles of
a human being contract in convulsive movement when his last breath
passes his lips. All was then still. The organism was beginning to decay
into its elements. Death had come.
J. R. Macdonald, The Awakening of India, pp. 303-04.
72. J. F. Royle, Antiquity of Hindu Medicine, p. 36.
73. In spite of such strict dietary rules, modern well-to-do Indians, on the
whole, must be amongst the world’s greatest over-eaters.

74. Santi Parva, XVI, 7-9. Cited in S. N. Mitra, Anglo-Indian Studies, p.
335.

Notes to Chapter VI

1. The pre-Buddhist Chinese sense of realism and of the concrete was 9°
intense that they produced little mythology and few fairy tales of their own
The bulk of their finest fairy tales were originally brought by the Buddhist
monks from India during the first millennium A.n. The Buddhists Ea
them in their sermons to make their teaching more agreeable and lucid.

2. The story of “Pururavas and Urvasi” found in the Rig Veda (X, 95) '8 als
the oldest literary rendering of the tale of Cupid and Psyche.

3. A. A. Macdonell, India’s Past, p. 115.

4. J. P. Couchoud in J. Hackin, e¢ al, Asiatic Mythology, p. 31. a

5. By studying particularly Indian and Greek mythology, scholars De

discover the means of learning about the succession of cultural i

Because, whilst the early civilizations of Egypt and Arabia, due t°

geographical position, were overrun.and destroyed, those of Greece

804

6.
7.
8.

0. L

11

`C,
1 handogya Upanishad, I, 12, 1-5.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VI

especially of India, forming what may be called culs-de-sac, have survived.
“Here, as if up the long shores of some hidden creek, would be forced the
tidal wave of one epoch after another, each leaving on the coast a tide-mark
that perhaps none of its successors would be able entirely to cover.” See
Nivedita and A. K. Coomaraswamy, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists,
p. 1.
A.B. Keith, 4 History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 353-54.
Cited in G. N. Banerjee, Hellenism in Ancient India, p. 273.
Various illustrations of this view can be seen in Angelo de Gubernatis’
Zoological Mythology (I, 30 f). For example: Aurora (the goddess of dawn),
as the first to appear every day in the eastern sky and as the first to know
the break of day, is naturally represented as one of the swiftest amongst
those who are the guests of the sun prince during the night. And like her
cows, which do not cover themselves with dust (this being an attribute
which in the Indian faith distinguishes the gods from mortals, because
the former walk in the heavens and the latter upon earth), she leaves no
footsteps behind her in her onward flight. The word aped (pad and pada
being synonymous) may mean not only she who has no feet, but also she
who has no footsteps (that is, the measure of the foot), or, again, she who
has no slippers, Aurora having, it appears, lost them; for the prince Mitras,
whilst following the beautiful young girl, finds a slipper which shows her
footstep, the measure of her foot, a foot so small that no other woman has
afoot like it, an almost infirmable, almost imperceptible foot, which brings
us back again to the idea of one who has no feet. The legend of the lost
slipper, and of the prince who tried to find the foot predestined to wear
it, the central interest in the popular story of Cinderella, seems to repose
entirely upon the double meaning of the word apad, i.e., one who has no
fect, or what is the measure of the foot, which may be either the footstep
or the slipper. Moreover, in the story of Cinderella, the prince often cannot
Overtake the fugitive because a chariot bears her away.
: Somperz later said, “Practically the entire fairy-lore
derived from India. No one disputes this assertion today,
Yet can give a completely clear account of the ways and me
'ts journey was accomplished.” See Greek Thinkers, p- 95.

` =g, Custom and Myth, pp. 12-13.

of the Occident is
but no one as
ans by which

` Manu, the intelligent, the father of the human race, was the son of gods.

805

13.
14.

15.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

From the remains of the offering he made for Visnu was born a woman
. re aus
Ida. As Manu desired her, Ida turned herself into a cow seeking to avoid

incest, as she regarded herself as Manu’s daughter having been created by

dintoa she-goat
and Manu into a he-goat. Thus Manu, the father, each time took the male

form corresponding to the female form assumed by Ida, his daughter, And
in this way the animals were born.

Rig Veda, VII, 103.

Similarly, the distinction between the katha and the akyayika, as the
invented story and the traditional legend respectively, is more or less
academic. Some of the stories of the Pancatantra are indeed called kathas,
but one of the versions of the entire work is styled Tuntrakhyayika, whilst
Gunadhya’s work is designated Brihatkatha. Both these types, in turn,
must be distinguished from the prose romance, the so-called katha and
akhyayika, such as the Harsa-carita and the Kadambari in which all the
graces and refinements of the Kavya are transferred from verse to prose,
either to create an exuberantly fanciful story or to vivify and transforma
legend or folktale.

Davids, History and Literature of Buddhism, pp. 54-55.

him. Manu then turned himself into a bull. Then Ida turne:

16. J. Hertel, Das Pancatantra, seine Geschichte und seine Verbreitung, index, pp-

17.
18.

19.

451f.
F. Edgerton, The Pancatantra, p. 11.

Originally said to comprise twelve books, it is fairly certain that this work
contained five books with a brief introduction and was called Pancatantra
but there is a considerable discussion of the meaning of the word ain
It may denote nothing more than a book or its subject-matter, but sine
it occurs in the title Tantrakhyayika of one of the versions, it may HE Ie
a text of polity as an art. There is no evidence at all of authorship. ‘The
name Visnusarman, applied in the introduction to the wise hamen
who instructs with these stories the ignorant sons of King Amarasakti a
Mahilaropya in Deccan, is obviously as fictitious as the names of ibe ey
and the place. Hertel thinks that the work was composed in Kashmi
his arguments are inconclusive.

Barzuyeh declined to accept any reward for his translation except a

< sons
honour and the freedom to append an account of his own life and opinio
to the work.

dress of

20. V. Staden (ed.), Vetalapantschavinsati, p: xvii.

806

21.

22.

24.

Sh) dase
36. anerjee, Hellenism in Ancient India, p. 286-

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VI

Incidentally, the German translation of the Pancatantra was one of the
earliest printed books in Europe.
Fora chart illustrating the dissemination of Indian fables, see Max Miller,

Chips from a German Workshop, IV, 171.

_ In 1844, M. Reinaud published the Persian text of the portions of the

Mujmil al-Tawarikh with a French translation in the Journal Asiatique
(1844, pp. 114 ff), in his “Fragments Arabes et Persans inedits relatifs
á l'Inde antérieurement au X'e siécle de lére chrétien.” S. K. Chatterji in
Indo-Asian Culture, July 1958, pp. 50-71.

One of the other sources from which Hitopadesa draws maxims is a purely
metrical treatise, dealing directly with the principles of polity, Mitisara.
In the Indian literature, Hitopadesa, like the Pancatantra, is classified as
Nitisastra.

. See D. M. Lang, The Balavariani, introduction and pp. 91-41.

. Ibid, p. 9.

. M. Müller, Chips from a German Workshop, IV, 146.

- W. R. S. Ralston, “Beauty and the Beast,” The Nineteenth Century, IV

(December 1878), 990-1012.

. Cited in W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folk-tales, p. 22. In this work Ralston

refers to a variety of parallel stories in Russian and Indian traditions.

. La Fontaine, Fables, Bk. VII. Fable 10.

- Pancatantra, Bk. V, “The Brahman who Built Air-castles.”

- Ibid, “The Brahman and the Mongoose.”

- Edgerton, The Pancatantra, pp. 17-19.

~GN. Banerjee has compiled a list of about thirty-five of those types of

Indo-European fables which are common to the Hindus and the Persians
on the one hand, and the Germans, the Norsemen, the Scots, the Irish,
the Sicilians, the Greeks, and the Slavs on the other, and which may haye
migrated from India. See Hellenism in Ancient India, p. 281. Jacobs in his
History of the Aesopic Fable has drawn parallels between the Indian aod the
Greek fable. He has selected thirteen Jatakas (Nos. 30, 32, 34 [with 45),
136, 143, 146, 189, 215, 294, 308, 374, 383, 426), and found peluh
Amongst such well-known Greek fables as “The Ass in the Lion’s Skin,
© Wolf and the Lamb,” “The Wolf and the Crane,” and “Ihe Fox and

the Crow.”

-J. Thomas in H. T. Francis, Jataka Tales, p- iv-

807

87.
38.
39.
40.

41.
42.
43.
44.

45.
46.
47.

48.

aa ok z z stern
. “While Western music speaks of the wonders of God’s creation, Ea

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Banerjee, Hellenism in Allcient India, p. 292.

Gokul Das De, Significance and Importance of Jatakas, p. 26.

Cited in Francis, Jataka Tales, p. iii.

A. A. Macdonell, India’s Past, pp. 120-21. That Indian fables are pre-
Buddhist has also been confirmed by M. Emmanuel Cosquin (Contes
Populaires de Lorraine), who also postulates that Indian fables were
continually transmitted to Europe orally from the early ages.

A. Weber, The History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 211-22.

Banerjee, Hellenism in Ancient India, p. 291.

Edgerton, The Pancatantra, pp. 13-16.

The cosmological aspect in Indian music unlike that in its Western
counterpart, is of great importance. Indian ragas are to be played at specified
times, such as in the morning or evening, or during spring or autumn,
etc.

Alain Danielou, Northern Indian Music, 1, 115.

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, The Dance of Shiva, p. 94.

It carries only one chapter on music proper, describing in detail the svaras
(the seven notes of the gamut), srutis (microtonal intervals), gramas (scales),
murchhanas, and jatis. Whilst the principles of his theory are still alive, the
details of his system are things of the past. Other chromatic intervals, in
addition to the seven pure notes, were obtained by the murchhana process,
i.e. by changing the key note. It is uncertain if Bharata is the real name
of the author. For the word bharata means a dance-actor, and was used
as a common name in the title of all the treatises on stage technique, and
Bharata is also regarded as the legendary guru of Sangita.

‘The Sangita Ratnakara deals with the whole range of musical form and
composition and gives a detailed account of ancient musical theory. L
mentions a number of musical writers, since the days of Bharata, but their
works have not survived. Its fundamental scale, suddha raga, is Mukhar h
the modern Kanakangi. Its author, in attempting to make his treatise n
broad-based and exhaustive as possible, not only covered all the aspect$ x
music and dancing, but also gave place in his work to styles and patte” =
prevalent in the various parts of the country. Scholars from all regions an
have looked up to Natyasastra and Sangita Ratnakara for authority:
music hints at the inner beauty of the Divine in man and in the na
_music requires of its hearers something of that mood of div!

808

50.

51.

52.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VI

discontent, of yearning for the infinite and impossible.” Mrs. Mann, cited
in H. A. Popley, The Music of India, p. 136.

“Jndian classical music, compared with our Western music, is like a
pure crystal. It forms a complete perfected world of its own, which any
admixture could only debase. It has, quite logically and rightly, rejected
those innovations which have led the development of Western music
into the multiple channels which have enabled our art to absorb every
influence under the sun. Freedom of development in Indian music is
accorded the performer, the individual, who, within fixed limits, is free to
improvise without any restraint imposed externally by other voices, whether
concordance or discordant—but not to the basic style, which excludes
polyphony and modulation.” Yehudi Menuhin, “Indian and Western
Music,” Hemisphere, April 1962, p. 5.

Geography, X, 11, 17. Cited in Alain Danielou, Northern Indian Music, 1,
21.

Menuhin, “Indian and Western Music,” Hemisphere, April 1962, p. 6. The
story of the discovery of Sanskrit is dealt with in Vol. II, Ch. V.

. Alain Danielou’s Hindu name is Shiva Sharan, and his books include

Northern Indian Music, Volumes I and II, and Introduction to the Study of
Musical Scales and Hindu Polytheism.

» Abhedananda, India and Her People, 1940, pp. 216-21.

- K. Sorabji, Around Music, pp. 147-48.

. Ibid, p. 149.

. Times, London, 28 August 1963.

- Menuhin, “Indian and Western Music,” Hemisphere, April 1962.
- A similar game on a 6 x 6 board is found in the bas-

reliefs on the stupa of
Bharhut.

- H.J. R. Murray, A History of Chess, p- 115.
: Murray,

A History oj Board Games, p. 36-

H. Namkura, Japan and India to Asia, p. 9.
- Patent No. 14636.

Notes to Chapter VII
it.

leis not easy to make an exact count of the Gypsies ae sandy ae
ceaselessly, and it has been suggested that the official figures given

Senerally on the low side.

809

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

. Inrecent years Gypsies have begun to organize themselves into a Corporate

body such as the International Gypsy Committee. The leaders of this
Committee hope that one day they will have a seat at the United Nations,
But at present they are mainly engaged in tackling the social and practical
problems of their community. In December 1966, the Gypsies of Britain
met at St. Paul’s Cray, Kent, to form their first trade union under the
auspices of the International Committee. Significantly, they met at the
public-house outside of which hung the stern notice, “No Gypsies,” Time,
12 December 1966.

. This figure however is an official estimate, which is understated. Moreover,

Gypsies were killed not only in the concentration camps, but everywhere, at
home, on roads, in forests. Thus, some scholars, such as Jan Kochanowski,
estimate the number of Gypsies exterminated by the Nazis to be about two
million.

4. Jean-Paul Clebert, The Gypsies, p. 59. This book is an excellent and

exhaustive study of the history and daily life of the Gypsies up to the
present day.

5. Ibid, p. 76.

6.

G. Borrow, The Zincali, p. 15. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, probably the most
reliable modern interpreter of Borrow, has suggested in his recent work,
Gypsy Borrow, that Borrow, who looked so unlike his father and who had
a “gypsy-mind” and a “gypsy temperament,” was in fact a full-blooded
Gypsy.

. “Tradition says that it is there the origin of their phobia for wet places must

be sought.” Clebert, The Gypsies, p. 72.

. George Borrow, The Gypsies of Spain, p. 14. :
- ‘The following verse by the great Danish poet, Jeppe Aakjar, dated 1918i

n

his Hjaertegrces og Ærenpris (andet Oplag: Gyldendal, Københaun, 1921),
is a fitting comment on the gentile treatment of Gypsies:
TATERNE
Vi voetlted deres Hytter, vi øden dem selv
bag Tugthucets gitrede Celler;
og da vi havde plaget dem grundigt ihjel,
vi lod dem opstaa i Noveller.
THE GYPSIES
We harried and ruined them and clapped them in jail
As soon as we had wrecked their hovels;

2 © 810

10.

- Works on Indian history scarcely mention the Gypsies at all,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VII

And when we had crushed them as dead as a nail,

We let them stand up in our novels.
Translated by J. Glyn Davies, October 1931, Journal of the Gypsy Lore
Society, 3rd series, XII, 64.
Itis not surprising to find that these Gypsies, who love freedom, nature, and
wanderings so much, have not seriously endeavoured to found a national
state of their own. Their only attempt to found a dynasty is associated with
the family of Kwiek. Gregory Kwiek, a smith of Polish origin, declared
himself “King of the Gypsies” about 1883. It was a feeble attempt and its
brief history is full of accounts of intrigue, internecine strife, and “palace
revolutions.”
The Gypsies first demanded a Romany state in 1875, then voiced the
demand in subsequent congresses, but there never appears to have existed
a systematic and well-organized movement. Apart from their own love of
nomadism, the difficulties involved in working out a political organization
consisting of Gypsies distributed across national frontiers, often in hostile
countries, must have been too formidable.

. From Irving Brown, Deep Song.

- The name Romani for the language of the Gypsies first came to be used in

writing in English in 1812, although the words Romani and Romanes had
been in use by the Gypsies in Britain long before that.

- “Gypsies and the Problem of their Acculturation,” Indo-Asian Culture, XVI

(1), 23,
with the
exceptions of A. L. Basham’s book, The Wonder That Was India, in which
an Appendix on the Gypsies is given, and Dasratha Sharma's The Earlier
Chauhan Families. A study by an Indian scholar, Chaman Lal, entitled
Gypsies: Forgotten Children of India, is very useful, but this work is nota
‘torical study in the real sense of the term. Ít is mainly a reiteration of
the conclusions of well-known Western scholars, to which the author has
made useful additions from his own personal experiences amongst Gypsies
and the data he himself collected, with an emphasis on the Indian Sanmi
ofthe problem. Whilst it is true that Gypsies have not played any role in
ndian history, as far as is known at present, their exodus from India must
ave been caused by certain events in India, an understanding we > ae
°t which must surely be considered important for Indian history ma z 3
the nature and history of the Gypsy migration were known, it would, n

Subr, greatly help Gypsiologists.

811

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

15. John Sampson, “On the Origin and Early Migration of the G
Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd series, II, 156-69.
16. Brian Vesey-Fitzgerald, Gypsies of Britain, pp. 8-9.

ypsies,”

17. The wide acceptance of 1417 as the date of their arrival in Europe has
given rise to considerable confusion because it inhibited or preconditioned
research concerning Gypsy origin and migration.

18. In the Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity is a letter of Simon Simeon,
who, after visiting Cyprus in 1332, recorded that he found there a race of
people called Cham, who were constantly wandering, living in small low
black tents, and hiding in the mountains. There is mention of the Zingari
in a letter of Theophilactus, who lived in the eleventh century. Records
in the archives of Bucharest suggest that long before the eleventh century
Tziganes were recognized as an entity by the inhabitants of the countries
they lived in.

19. The Empress Catherine de Courtenay-Valois (1301-46) authorized the
suzerains of Corfu to receive as vassals certain omines vaginiti coming
from the Greek mainland and using the Greek rite.

20. E. O. Winstedt, “Some Records of the Gypsies in Germany,” Journal of
the Gypsy Lore Society, XI (1932), 98. r

21. Clebert (The Gypsies, p. 29) gives the following dates for the appearance ot

Gypsies in Europe:
855? Byzantium France
1419 } Sisteron
or 1260
i > Denmark
1399 } Bohemia 1420: en
Bologna
1322? Crete 1422 }
Rome
1346 Corfu 1427 Paris
: or 1430 ) Wats
1348 Serbia TENY
The Peloponnese 1447 Barcelona
1378 } Zagreb or 1492 Scotland
: Basle 1505
GEPA Dordoni To Poland
} Moldavia he Sesion

_ The Elbe

Bie

22.

25.

26.

28,

29,

30

y .
-T have again experienced exactly the same mental impressio

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VII

The majority of European Gypsies call themselves Rom, Romano Cxavo,
Roma, Romane Cxave (Rama’s Sons). Those who are an offshot of German
and Italian Gypsies call themselves Manush (Sanskrit word for man), Stinti,
and Sinthi, presumably after Sind in India.

The equivalents of “Gypsy” are Tsigeni in Bulgaria, Tigani in Romania,
Ciganyok in Hungary, Zingari in Italy, Ziegeuner in Germany, Cigonas in
Lithuania, Zincali in Spain, and Ciganos in Portugal.

. “Where we comes from the dear Lord only knows and He’s too high and

mighty to tell the likes of us.” Charley Smith, A Gypsy. Cited in Brian
Vesey-Fitzgerald, Gypsies of Britain, p. 1.

. John Sampson, Jacob Bryant, in Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, New Series,

IV (1910-11), 162-94.

Romani dialects are numerous. The principal ones are Armenian Romani
(spoken in Transcaucasia), Finnish, Hungarian, German, and Welsh
Romani and the dialects of British, Catalan, and Andalusian Romanies.
Ralph Turner, “The Position of Romani in Indo-Aryan,” Journal of the Gypsy
Lore Society, V (1926), No. 4, 145-89. John Sampson opposed Turner's
view. See “Notes on Professor Turner's The Position of Romani in Indo-

Aryan,” Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, VI (1927), No. 2, 57-68.

: Excommunication, however, is not only a Hindu practice. In any rigidly knit

or closed community, excommunication is a normal feature of maintaining
the purity of tradition and strict discipline.
In India the rules and laws governing caste and family have been drastically
altered to remove social inequalities. The parallels drawn here relate to the
old social organization, now in decline, in India.
Some Ger man Gypsies, however, keep dogs and train them to steal meat
from the butcher’s shop.
n, observes
bert, “which I used to have in Indian temples, where the faithful
remain, by turns indifferent and deeply moved, at the very feet ofthe idols.
Clebert, The Gypsies, p: 143. Sara is regarded by all Christian, Protestant
ind Catholic Gypsies, as their own Black Virgin, the Kali,
St amongst them to receive the revelation of Christianity,
P the Gospel amongst Gypsies and non-Gypsies. Every ae
v Pilgrimage is held in May in France at Les eN ee :
x “T where Sara is said to have had the vision of three Marys, an ee
atue of Sara is now kept in a small church. Gypsies from all over Europe,

who was the
and who

813

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

and even from America, attend, and the occasion has come to bea great
Gypsy festival.

31. A number of their songs clearly illustrate this. For example:

I have four great palaces

Though you call me, ‘Beggar, knave.’
I've the hospital, the prison,

‘The cathedral, and the grave.

When rich and poor get drunk,
You hear the people say,

The poor man’s very drunk,
‘The rich man’s very gay.

The cobbler in the corner,
Mending shoes beside his lamp,
Says he cannot go to church,
Because the church is damp.

The cobbler in the corner,

He's very, very ill,

But if I'd said the tavern,

He'd have gone and drunk his fill.

Despite frequent and almost unceasing persecutions, he is not always
vindictive.

I hope God never gives

Even to those I hate,

Such sorrows as he sent to me,
Such evil, evil fate.

(From Irving Brown, Deep Song)

A - you
g: “My father was a Dom, and so was my fathers dad; J

Why, I’m a noble lad.”

d.)
njabi and Romani Parables,” in Chaman Lal (¢

42.

asi

46.

47,

48

49

-C

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER VII

_ Amongst the famous Gypsy boxers are Tom Smith, the featherweight

champion of 1844, Posh Price, Hooper the Tinman, and Tom Sayers.

Charles Leland and A. Barrere, Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and Cant, I,

xili.

, Some scholars regard bloke as having been derived from the Dutch blok

and not from /o&.

. Clebert, The Gypsies, p. 195.

. Ibid., pp. 98-99.

40. Ibid, p. 14.

. It is interesting that the archaeological finds of Untersiebenbrunn near.

Vienna included golden broaches with coloured stones, belonging to the
period around 400. Not only must these stones have come from India,
but, what is more important, the technique of setting stones in metal is
typically Indian. H. Kuhn, Germanische Kunst der Völkerwanderung.

‘The Hawaiians meet this difficulty by raising the strings and replacing the
fixed frets by a metal bar that is shifted at will.

. Brown, Deep Song, pp. 137-38.
; Notwithstanding its name, this instrument corresponds to the dulcimer

and to the cymbals.

Liszt was enchanted by Gypsy music, especially that of his famous Gypsy
compatriot, Janos Bihari. Liszt published a book on Gypsy music Des
Bohemiens et de leur musique en Hongrie, in 1859 in Paris.

A.L. Sinclair, “Gypsy and Oriental Music,” Journal of American Folk-Lore,
XX (76), 16,

Characterized by avery short step, with sharpened rhythm, this dance was
composed in two parts: one of them slow, of indomitable haughtiness; the
other, impetuous and of bouncing gaiety. Hussars and Gypsies enlivened

= melody and the pace, supported by the clicking of heels and the rattle
Of spurs,

-It has been disputed that Remenyi was a Gypsy- He is said to have been

t
€ descendant of an Hungarian merchant named Hoffman.

lebert, The Gyps; n
: rypsies, p. 116. Often traces are toun
ances with a non-religious but magical function: for example the Gypsy

ae dancers called dodole who, in Yugoslavia, serve by n z ve.
re CP i y
event Sterility in herds of cattle. These women have a widely ear. The

‘le, since it is sufficient to touch them for maladies to disapp tones:
round which they have trodden will cure patients of warts and gall-stones;

Gypsies of

815

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

And, in Bulgaria, Gypsy women dancers are sprinkled with water to bring

rain (the dance is called the paparuda).

50. The great American Romani, Rai Irving Brown, says: “It is my firm
conviction that Beethoven learned something from the complex and
swiftly changing rhythms of the Hungarian gypsies in Vienna; and Liszt
has admitted his indebtedness in no uncertain terms.” Deep Song, p. 117,

51. For this reason, in India, drums play a highly important role in
accompanying a singer. A good Indian drummer is as much a virtuoso as
a good European violinist, and is capable of producing extremely difficult
and delicate effects on his instrument.

52. Brown, Deep Song, p. 122.

53. Ibid, p. 130.

54. Duke of Beaufort (ed.), The Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes
(Volume on dancing), p. 215. On page 213, it is pointed out that “the kind
of erotic dancing, which was practised from the earliest times in the East,
and even in Europe by a class of women who, if not absolutely proved to
be Gypsies, had, at any rate, many points of resemblance to to them. Thus
the ‘Syrian girl who haunts the taverns round,’ described by Virgil suggests
the Syrian and Egyptian dancer, who is of Indo-Persian, that is to say, of
Luri, or Gypsy origin. Spanish girls of old times were conjectured to have
come from the universal Hindoo-Romany stock.”

Notes to Chapter VII

1. The account of his initial expedition was first published in his Sand-Buriel
Ruins of Khotan (1903) and was subsequently published, incorpot atingi
detailed report of the scientific results, as Ancient Khotan in two volumes x
1907. The account of the second expedition first appeared in his Ruins o)
Desert Cathyin two volumes in 1912, and later in Ser-India in five To
in 1921, giving a detailed report of the explorations and scientific Er
The account of his third journey appeared first in the Geogr apbical Jou” s
for August and September 1916, and later in his volumes on Inner
Asia.

2. For the nature of the Tun-huang manuscripts, see Arthur Waley,

~ and Stories from Tun-huang, pp. 236-37. í

3. Although during the period of Muslim domination Tokharestan aa ta

the area between Badakshan and Balkh, in the ancient period it mea 5
a ex area, embracing all the territories on both banks of the

Ballads

ified

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER Ix

4, Scholars transliterate the name of the Chinese pilgrim differently. De Bary
in the index to his Sources of Chinese Tradition suggests the chuang is the
more correct reading of his name. (This is the way most Chinese actually
pronounce the word today.) But both Mathews and Giles give sang as
the primary reading, at least in literary texts. Fairbank prefers tsang in East
Asia, 1, 146.

5, S, P. Tolstov, Podreunim del'tam oksa i Yaksarta (The Ancient delta of the
Oxus and Jaxartes), p. 6.

6. The Ancient name of Khotan appears in different forms in various
sources, such as Yu-tien, which is the oldest, Yu-tun, and Kiu-tan. All are
derivatives from the original form, Godana or Khotana. A Chinese name,
perhaps a more learned form, was Kiu-sa-ta-na, Kustana. The versions
found in old Kharoshthi documents are Kustana, Khotana, Khodana, and
Khodamna.

7. Sambhota is the Sanskrit title meaning the good Bhotiya or Tibetan. The
Tibetans call their country Bod from which is derived Bhota, by which
name Indians called Tibet. The inhabitants of Bhota were thus known as
Bhotias.

8. His two wives were also canonized as incarnations of Avalokitesvara's
consort Tara, the goddess of mercy.

9. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, p. 62.

Notes to Chapter IX

1. René Grousset, 4 History of Chinese Empire, p. 79.
: Sey Waley, The Way and its Power, p. 114.
7 E Bagchi, A Comprehensive History of India, Il, 766. a: ;
- In Chinese the common term for India is Tien-chu which is a phonetic
corruption of Shen-tu, as are the variants Kan-tu, Hsien-tu, or Hsien-tou.
5 ater, during the T'ang period, a new term, Yin-tu or In-tu, was used.
i = ‘erm Shen-tu can be philologically related to the word Sindhu (Indus).
A oe Karlgren, Analitical Dictionary of Chinese, No. 869.
Y, The Way and its Power, pp. 114-15.

‘other main schools of ancient Chinese thought were ;
jio So-called School of Names (ming-chia); the Yin-Yang school; Legalism

achia) $

k nA in
The Lun Yu, or Analects, is in fact a collection of his writings D aa

those of Mo-tzu;

817

10.
11.
12.

13.

14.
15.

16.

17.

18.
19.

20.
21.

22.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

made by his disciples. No actual writing of Confucius survives with the
possible exception of his share as editor in the Chun-Chiu annals of the
Lu state.

. The story goes on to say that the first Chin Emperor was unwilling to

embrace Buddhism and he had the Buddhist missionaries thrown into
prison. But at night the prison was broken open by a golden man about
sixteen feet high, who released the holy prisoners. The Emperor moved
by this miraculous happening, sought forgiveness.

E. Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Text), p. 20.

Did, p. 23.

In some versions of the story it is stated that two Indian monks, Kasyapa
Matanga and Dharmaratna (Chu-Fa-Lan), had returned with the
envoys.

Despite the political disunion, China never lost cultural unity and the
vision of a unified state, which would indicate the great value of the work
of the Chin or Han dynasties in welding China together. Even today the
Chinese call themselves the “Sons of Han.”

Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China, p- 58.

Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in China, pp- 33-34.

Hu Shih, “East and West: The Indianization of China: A Case Study
in Cultural Borrowing” in Harvard Tercenary Conference of Arts and
Sciences, Independence, Convergence, Borrowing, p. B25.

In the Tripitaka catalogues, their names are recorded. Nanjio has listed
the Tripitaka translators, both Chinese and foreign, whose names occur 1n
the Ming dynasty catalogue rendered into English by him; these worked
from the first century onwards. Amongst Nanjio’s names are several who
are said to have come from the “western region” and there is no doubt that
they include monks from India.

The prefix chu is indicative of the Indian origin of the monks.
Many Buddhist texts no longer available in India in their original
survived in their Chinese renderings.

P. C. Bagchi, India and China, p. 34. the
Some Sinologists doubt the historicity of Bodhidharma and claim tha
was invented to give Ch’an Buddhism an air of authenticity.
‘Some scholars assert that although a strong patron of Buddhis

have

m, Harsha

R rita
was not exactly a Buddhist ruler. He is called a Saiva in the Harsha Cha
_ of Bana. Possibly he developed leanings towards Buddhism under

Hsian"

ee 818

23.

24.
25.
26.

28.

29

-In fact,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER IX

tsang’s influence, but he does not seem to have actually embraced the faith.
However, he practiced extreme religious tolerance, building temples for
the Saivas, and monasteries for Buddhists; he was a brave soldier and a
great commander, as well as a generous patron of art and learning, and a
writer of repute. He erected a vihara and a bronze temple at the Nalanda
University as well as several thousand stupas on the banks of the River
Ganga. Like Asoka, he was responsible for a variety of humanitarian and
public welfare activities and establishments.

There was another Bodhiruci who worked in northern China from 508 to
536. His original name was Dharmaruci, but was changed to Bodhiruci
by order of the Empress Wu Tso-thien.

There are records of earlier pilgrims but little is known about them.
Tao-pu, Fe-sheng, Fa-wei, Tao-yo, and Tao-tai.

It is said that when he found that Harsha had died, and his throne had
been usurped by his minister, he secured the military help of Nepal and
Tibet, which were bound in matrimonial alliance with each other, as was
Tibet with China, and defeated the usurper, Anunasva, taking him as a

prisoner to China.

. Aset of the Liao edition of the Tripitaka was presented to Korea. Later, on

tearca printing their second edition of the canon, the Koreans made a
comparison of the three editions—the Sung, Liao, and the first Korean—
and found that the Khitan version was more accurate and comprehensive
than the other two.

There are altogether fourteen printed editions of the Chinese Tripitaka,
in which all the extant works are collected. The first edition dates from
T nie ght other editions appeared in China before 1869. An edition
was published in Korea in 1010, and four editions were pr inted in Japan,
of which the earliest appeared during the period from 1624 to 1643, and
the last came out in 1924-30, known as the Taisho Issaikyo, consisting of

cighty-three volumes containing 3,098 works.

= isi i Js were fomented by monks
m ae White Lotus Society, a

oEby, common people ill the guise of monks. }
Prominent Buddhist aoe was a leading rebellious group. During
me Mongol period secret societies claiming connections with Sepa
ecame active, but they were mainly inspired by political motives an :
“°nsiderations of power. However, information on this theme—the ae
wcieties and Mongol Buddhism—is too insufficent to permit any de
uation at present.

819

30.

31.

32.
33.
34,
35.
36.

37.
38.

39.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The last imperial patron of Ch’an Buddhism in China was Emperor Yung-
Cheng (1723-36).

Many Buddhist paintings, especially Lamaistic, were executed during the
reign of Chien-Lung (1736-96).

H. G. Creel, Chinese Thought, p. 228.

René Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture, p. 137.

Wolfram Eberhard, A History of China, pp. 142-43.

Hu Shih, Independence, Convergence, Borrowing, p. 226.

Confucianist historians have insisted that the edict of 446 was due to the
discovery of alcohol and women in one of the most famous Buddhist
monasteries. The chief complaint of the Confucianist literati against
Buddhism was that its monasticism “did away with the family, and thus
struck at the very roots of ancestor-worship, and it gave men an opportunity
to evade military service.” The latter argument was an effective device
to convince a soldier king like Toba. See René Grousset, The Rise and
Splendour of the Chinese Empire, p. 113.

Hu Shih, Independence, Convergence, Borrowing, p. 230.
“Neo-Confucianism was stimulated in its development by a number of
Buddhist ideas. Certain features of Taoism, such as its canon and pantheon,
were taken over from Buddhism. Works and phrases in the Chinese
language owe their origin to terms introduced by Buddhism, while in
astronomical, calendrical, and medical studies the Chinese benefited from
information introduced by Indian Buddhist monks. Finally, and most
important of all, the religious life of the Chinese was affected profoundly
by the doctrines and practices, pantheon and ceremonies brought in by
the Indian religion.” Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China, p. 3. i
There is an old Chinese proverb which says: “If the government gets bee
of you, they will flog you to death; if the Buddhist get hold of you they

will starve you to death.”
. Hu Shih, Independence, Convergence, Borrowing, p. 247.
- Ibid., p. 223.
. Ibid, p. 225..
. Ch'en, Buddhism in China, p. 484.

Fung Yu-Lan,

Short History of Chinese Philosophy, p. 242.
id, p254. 0 = >

E S ; oe 55,
amy, Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism, pp: 25°

820

47.

48.

49,

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER IX

Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture, p. 147. Grousset suggests that dhyana
should perhaps be translated as “intuition” and not “meditation.”

“{ see no reason to doubt that the ‘holy mountain-men’ (sheng-hsien)
described by Lieh Tzu are Indian rishi; and when we read in Chuang Tzu
of certain Taoists who practised movements very similar to the asanas of
Hindu yoga, it is at least a possibility that some knowledge of the yoga
technique which these rishi used had also drifted into China.” Waley, The
Way and its Power, p. 114.

Hu Shih, Independence, Convergence, Borrowing, p. 234.

50. Printing fas invented in the middle of the eleventh century by Pi-cheng

51.
52,
53.

54.
55,
56,
57,

58.
59,
60,

61

-D
62,

who is said to have made movable type moulded in terracotta. During the
T'ang period wood-block printing appears to have been quite popular.
The oldest Chinese printed book in existence today is a Buddhist text,
the Diamond Sutra of 868, preserved in the British Museum. It is a scroll
composed of leaves of paper glued end to end. The first people to spread
printed books amongst the population were Buddhists, whose reasons for
doing so were, naturally, missionary.
Chinese Culture, IV, No. 4 (March 1963), 53.
H. G. Creel, Chinese Thought, p. 216.
The writings of the Neoconfucianist School were collected in the fifteenth
century by the Ming Emperor Yung-Lo ina compendium known as Hsing-
Li Ta Chuan, Later, other collections and selections of Neoconfucianist
writings were published. A modern and accessible one is that by Fung
Yu-Lan, which has been translated into English.
Arthur Waley, Analects of Confucius, p. 73.
Creel, Chinese Thought, p. 220.
Chien, Buddhism in China, p. 472. ‘
Wm. Theodore de Bary cited in David S. Nivison and Arthur F. Wright
(eds.), Confucianism in Action, pp: 33-34.
id, p. 44,
Chen, Buddhism in China, p. 476.
H.G. Creel, Chinese Thought, p- 203. : ta
: Twichett cited in A. F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History, p: 1 ;
l has been estimated that before 1750 the number of books eo A
1g ae exceeded those of all other languages Bae P m
carly 1 Chinese books outnumbered those in any other ee

Y times the number of Chinese books was prodigious.

821

63.

64.
65.

66.
67.

68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.

75.
76.
77.

the trigonometric tables. See Needham, Science and Civilization t

78

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

“China has no epic and no dramatic literature of importance, The novel
exists and has merits, but seldom became the instrument of great writers,”
Arthur Waley, One hundred and seventy Chinese Poems, p. 3.

Lai Ming, A History of Chinese Literature, p. 3.

‘The oldest examples of written Chinese are the inscriptions found on oracle
bones and bronze vessels dating from the latter part of the Shang or Yin
dynasty (traditional dates 1766-1123 s.c.), but these are very brief and of
interest primarily to archaeologists.

Lai Ming, A History of Chinese Literature, p. 4.

An example of the efficacy of this form of preaching is given by Huei Chiao
in his Biographies of Great Buddhist Monks: “When the Priests talked about
the transience of life, the audience was seized by fear and trembled; when
they described the scenes in Hell, the audience burst into tears of shock,
when they examined the causes of tragedy, the audience felt that they were
witness to the wrong-doings; when they preached the moral of their stories,
the audience anticipated the punishment which was to follow; when they
described happiness, the audience felt comforted and contented; when
they portrayed sorrow the audience wheezed and sobbed. Thus, audiences
were moved and won over. The people left their seats to kneel down and
repent. And then everyone joined in in intoning Buddhist sutras and felt
happy.” Cited in Lai Ming, A History of Chinese Literature, p. 253.

René Grousset, The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, p- 170.
Ibid., pp. 114-15.

Ibid., p. 142.

Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture, pp. 187-88.

P. C. Bagchi, India and China, p. 163.

P. K. Acharya, Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad, V1, 367.

The earliest Chinese music manuscript yet known, found in the Tun-huang
caves, belongs to the Tang period.

J. Needham, Science and Civilization in China, I, 213-14.

Chinese Literature, 4th issue, 1955, p. 164. he
However, as the work progresses and if Needham finds further evidence,

A E uR EE cerning
does sometimes revise his opinion in subsequent volumes, €-8- CO? Chins
n

IV, Part 1, 51 footnote (a).
-< Ibid., IT, 419-26.

822

8i.
. Ch'en, Buddhism in China, p. 483. Hua T'o of the Han dynasty is often

87.

NOTES TO PART I CHAPTER IX

Ibid, T, 202.
80.

Needham, who finds it hard to adduce definite proof of Indian influence
on Chinese science, says: “It is probable that drugs such as Chaulmoogra
oil, used for leprosy, which have been for many centuries in Chinese
pharmacopoeia, were of Indian origin.” Ibid., I, 212.

F. H. Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine, p. 73.

referred to in his biography as the father of Chinese surgery because
of his surgical exploits, which included a laparotomy with anaesthesia,
amputation of an infected portion of the intestines, then suturing the
opening and applying some ointment to the wound. On another occasion
he is said to have operated on the head of a patient. These exploits remind
one of the surgical accomplishments of the Indian physician Jivaka, who
was a contemporary of the Buddha, and whose deeds had come to be known
to the Chinese through the translations of An Shih-kao in the second
century. The earliest biography of Hua T’o appeared in the Wei-chih
of Ch’en Shou (233-297), which suggests that the operations reputedly
performed by Hua T’o were but echoes of those of Jivaka.

- H.J. R. Murray, A History of Board Games, p. 36.
84.

85.

Cited in Needham, Science and Civilization in China, IV, Part 1, 328.
Suniti Kumar Chatterji, “India and China: Ancient Contact,” The Journal
ofthe Asiatic Society, (1), 1959, pp- 98-104.

` The modern Indian names for pear and peach are different; they are naspatt

and adu respectively.
This was the only Chinese work translated into Sanskrit, although the
Sanskrit version has not been found yes

823

NOTES FOR PART II

Notes to Chapter I

ik

. Yamato is now a province in central Japan, but at the time it me

It is from the name of this dynasty that the name of the country, Korea, is
derived.

- D. Bethune McCartee, a well-known American scholar, writes: “The art

of spelling was invented neither by the Chinese nor by the Japanese. Its
introduction into both these countries (and, as we are convinced, in Cores
as well), was the result of the labours of . . . the early Buddhist missionaries.
In all the three countries . . . the system of spelling is most undoubtedly

of Sanskrit origin.” Cited in W. E. Griffis, Corea—The Hermit Nation, p-
338.

; t
. In 607, a Japanese mission visited China, and a year later the Chinese sen

a return mission. The Japanese Emperor addressed the Chinese Empe* %
Tang-ti of the Sui dynasty as “the Emperor of the East respectfully g a
the Emperor of the west,” but the Chinese Emperor returned “the Empero
greets the sovereign of Wa.” Wa was the old name of Japan.

> pac . i ction
- The ancient religion of Japan did not have a name, but after the introdu

of Buddhism, it was called Shinto to distinguish it from other ee ts
à an

; t
whole of centrat Japan. Until Tokyo was made the capital of the nar
in 1869, the seat of government and the Imperial residence were

in that part of the country. .

pata nm = A > « # to
6.. Japan the reigning Queen in her own right is designated as “Empe! ee

ae ge “ ress:
: disting he from € Queen consort, who is addressed as “Emp.

-824

14.

15.

16,

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER I

‘The present temple is not really the original since it has been rebuilt many

times on the original plan.

. He died at Kongobuji, the leading monastery of the Shingon sect, but

his followers believe he did not die but merely entered into Pye aon
samadhi, At a fixed time a properly qualified high priest comes and changes
Kukai’s gown in the inner sanctuary where he is believed to be staying in
meditation.

. D. C. Holtom, Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism, p- 129.

. H. Nakamura, Japan and Indian Asia, p. 8.

. D. Suzuki in Chaman Lal (ed.), India and Japan, p. 11.

. Nakamura, Japan and Indian Asia, p. 3.

. The Abhidharmakosa of Vasubandhu and the Vijnaptimatratasiddhi of

Dharmapala have become known to the West only through the French
translations by L. de La Vallée Poussin, whereas in Japan numerous
treatises have been composed upon them.

Even the bibliography appended to the Immyo Zuigenki (The Origin of
Buddhist Logic) written by Hotan in the first half of the eighteenth century
includes eighty-four Japanese works of logic.

The Sanskrit original of the poem runs as follows:

Sarve Samskarah anityah
Utpadavayadharminah
Tesam vyupasamah sukham,
Avadad mahasramanah.

The Sanskrit verse is based on the last words of the Buddha in the Suéra,
and its English rendering would be:

The flowers, however fragrantly blooming

Are doomed to wither, and who in this world

Can hope to be permanently living?

The remotest mountain path of existence 1s cros
Awakening from a dream so evanescent,

Iam no more subject to intoxication.

sed today.

festivities is played
eight cards—each
letters.

One of the popular Japanese games played at New Year

With cards called ¿ora karuta. A pack consists of forty-

With a short saying beginning with one of the forty-eight le

See Johannes Nobel, Central Asia: The Connecting Link Between East and
®t, Ch. V, for a brief account of this theme.

825

17.

18.
19

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The print appears to have been made from a metal plate in the middle of
the eighth century. The regular printing of Buddhist books from wooden
blocks did not begin until later, during the early Kamakura period.
Sakira is an old name of Indra by which he is chiefly known in Japan.

Shinto mythology is founded on legendary stories that appear in two
ancient collections: the Nihongi or Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan), and
the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Things). The former, written in Chinese,
was published in 720 by imperial order and is an official history. The latter,
also written in Chinese characters but in a syntax which is purely Japanese,
is a compilation of older stories put together in this collection between
704 and 714. Three other collections of stories and myths deserve mention:
the Kogoshui, composed in about 807, the Fudoki, composed in the early
eighth century, and the first ten books of the Engishiki, a ceremonial dating
from 927. The last of these contains not only Shinto mythology, but more
particularly Shinto religion. Before these collections were compiled, Shinto
religion and mythology had already come under foreign influences, for
example, Buddhism in Japan had been firmly established for a long time.

20. Gino K. Piovesana, Recent Japanese Philosophical Thought, p. 103.
21. Sir Charles Eliot, Japanese Buddhism, p- 191.

22. Coomaraswamy, however, does not subscribe to the the view that there

exists a very close connection between Horyuji and Ajanta, and believes
that the sources of the Japanese work are to be sought in Khotan rather
than in India. But it seems as though the Japanese must have depended
in some degree directly upon Indian sources; it would be impossible
otherwise to explain such remarkable iconographic parallels as the Jikoku
Ten (Dhrtarastra) of the Kondo standing on a crouching demon, with the
Kubera Yaksa of Bharut; and difficult to account for the great apip
Brahmanical, especially many-armed, forms so characteristic of the mie d
Shinto-Buddhist pantheon. A. K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian a”
Indonesian Art, pp. 154-55.

23. H. J. R. Murray, 4 History of Board Games, p. 36.

Notes to Chapter IT

1.

Ancient Americans are popularly referred to as Red Indians, z y
archaeologists as Amerindians. Whilst these two designations ah
the advantage of common usage and currency on their side, they ° i
“produce confusion, Particularly for students of comparative history i

826

4

th, Wh Conquest of Mexico (1843) and The Gonquest of Peru (1847).
à According to Emerson, Humboldt was one of those wonders

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER II

civilization. Ancient Americans are neither red nor Indians; they have lived
in America, having originated from Asia, for a much longer period than
Indo-Europeans have in Europe. Hence, it is perhaps more appropriate
to call them Asiomericans rather than Amerindians. There seems little
justification to perpetrate a mistake made by Columbus centuries ago.

. Recently a Welsh writer, Mr. Richard Deacon, has claimed a Welshman,

Madoc, son of Owain, King of Gwynedd, reached America three
centuries before Columbus. An American scholar, Dr. Cyrus Gordon,
believes that the Phoenicians discovered Brazil about two thousand years
before Columbus reached the Bahamas. His conclusion is based on a
new interpretation of an inscription found at Parahyba in 1872, and long
regarded a forgery.

. Bernal Diaz’s is one of the two very personal accounts of what befell

pre-Columbian civilization that have survived. He wrote the story of the
conquest of Mexico late in life, less to vindicate or extol his own part in
it than to correct the misrepresentations of others. The other account is
about the Incas, written by Garcilaso de la Vega, son of a Spanish captain
and the Princess Chimpu Occlo (first cousin of the last Inca monarch). He
wrote down, also late in life, all he knew of the history and customs of his
mother’s peoples and of how their empire, the Tahuantinsuyu, collapsed.
As he was of mixed descent and a devout Roman Catholic, he sought to
teconcile Incas and Spaniards, and to contrast the horror and devastation
caused by the Spaniards with the salvation they brought in the Christian
religion.

- Calder, The Inberitors, p. 151.

- Honore, Jn Quest of the White God, p. 17.

. For example, Hiram Bingham, Waldeck, Brasseru de Bourbourg, Le
Plangeon, Alfred Maudslay, Ruz Lhullier, S. G. Morley, Edward Herbert

ompson, Tello, Zelia Nuttal, Manuel Gamio, Garcia Payon, and many

Others. These names are mentioned without any consideration of priority

of work or importance.

ofthe world,

like Aristotle, who appear from time to time as if to show the possibilities
of the human mind.

9. Von Humboldt, Research Concerning the Institutions and Monuments of the

Ancient Inhabitants of America, 1, Part XXX, 22.
-John Lang published a second edition of his wor

827

k in 1877, in which

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.
23.
24.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

he claimed that two missionaries, John Williams and William Ellis, of
the London Missionary Society had literally stolen his theory and had
incorporated it into their respective publications, 4 Narrative of. Missionary
Enterprises in the South Sea Islands (London, 1837), and Polynesian
Researches (London, 1831) without acknowledgment to him. Se
Origin and Migration of the Polynesian Nation, pp. 305-28.
Analyzing the development of societies, Gordon Childe remarks “,. itis
not in the least surprising that the development of societies observed in
different parts of the Old World, to say nothing of the New, should exhibit
divergence rather than parallelism... But a comparison of the sequence
summarised discloses not only divergence and differentiation but also
convergence and assimilation. To the latter phenomena it is hard to find
an analogy in organic evolution.” Social Evolution, p. 166.

R. Heine-Geldern and G. F. Ekholm in Sol Tax (ed.), The Civilizations
of Ancient America, p. 301.

B. Rogers, “An Archaeological Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela,”
Science, Vol. 131, 1180.

Heine-Geldern and Ekholm in Sol Tax (ed.), The Civilizations of Ancient
America, pp. 308-09.

Paul Kirchoff, “The Diffusion of a Great Religious System from India to
Mexico.” See Sobretiro del XXXV Congress International de Americanistas,
p. 88.

Ibid, p. 73.

D. A. Mackenzie, Myths of Pre-Columbian America, p. 58.

E. B. Tylor, “On Diffusion of Mythical Beliefs as Evidence in the History
of Culture.” See Report of the British Association, 1894, p. 774.
Scholars such as Laurette Sejourne, however, definitely accept his historical
reality because his qualities of leadership are often mentioned. dese
Sejourne, Burning Water—Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico, p: 2 i
Some scholars see in Quetzalcoatl a Christian missionary who had reache
America by accident, k
Miguel Leon-Portilla in S. N. Kraemer (ed.). Mythologies of the Ancien
World, p. 449. ;

M. Leon-Portilla, iżid., p. 468.
M. Leon-Portilla, ibid., p- 468.

e Lang,

aes ZES to
M. W. De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan. p. 5. Visser gS ie
-Say that the Indian serpent-shaped Naga was identified in China wit

eee ee 828

25.

26.

27,

28.
29,
30.

31

32.
33.

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER II

four-legged Chinese dragon, because both were divine inhabitants of seas
and rivers, and givers of rain. Whilst it is certain that the cult of Naga was
one of the most popular cults in ancient India, it is a subject Seedri
debate as to whether it is of Aryan or pre~Aryan origin. There was a form
of Naga-worship prevalent in the Indus Valley period, but others argue
that the form of Naga-worship, as it is known, dates from the vedic period.
They refer to “Ahi-Budhnya,” the serpent of the deep, mentioned in the Rig
Veda, who was an atmospheric deity, and who, in some texts, is mentioned
as a divinity of middle or aerial region.

Some writers have described the Maya elephant as a badly drawn bird.
This confusion appears to have been caused because the Mayan sculptor
apparently had never seen an elephant and must have used a manuscript
picture as his model, which, in its turn, may have been drawn from
memory.

“It would be ridiculous to assert that such a strange doctrine was of
spontaneous origin in different parts of the Old and New worlds.” D. A.
Mackenzie, Myths of Pre-Columbian America, p. 70.

Heine-Geldern and Ekholm in Sol Tax (ed.), The Civilizations of Ancient
America, p- 307.

W. H. Prescott, Conquest of Peru, p. 118.

Miles Poindexter, The Ayar-Incas, Vol. 11, 211-15.

Ibid, pp. 271-87.

- The chromosome complement in Gossypium is basically N = 13; all the wild

species except one are diploid. The tetraploidal form has twice (2N=26)
the number of the original number of chromosomes.
Hutchison, Silow, and Stephens, Evolution of Gossypium, p- 98.
“The genetic and cytological data justify the assumption of closer homology
between the New World cottons and their nearest diploid relatives, and
4 more recent origin for allopolyploidy, than the proponents of the oe
bridge theory supposed. Firstly, all the allopolyploid species bear lint, n
the only other lint-bearing species are the Old World cottons, carrying the
A genom. Since the differentiation of the A genom has been shown to r
bound up with the improvement of lint by civilized man, A-bearing, linte
lop olyploids can only have arisen since the origin of human civilization.
Secondly, on cytological, morphological, and phenogenetic Ear
: raimondii is more closely related to the New World cottons t a ny
other species carrying the D genom. This also indicates a oe ea
for the New World cottons, since it suggests that the American Cipio

829

34,
35.

36.

37.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

species were differentiated inter se before the occurrence of allopolyploidy
Such a recent origin rules out any theory of natural spread to account i
the meeting of the diploid parents, solely on the inadequacy of the time
available. Only one alternative remains, that they were carried across the
Pacific by man among the seeds of his crop plants and with the tools of
his civilization.” Hutchinson eż al, Evolution of Gossypium, p. 76,

Sir Joseph Hutchinson, see Endeavour, XXI, 14.

C. R. Stonor and Anderson, “Maize Among the Hill Peoples of Assam,”
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, XXXVI (3), 356.

G. F. Carter, “Movement of People and Ideas across the Pacific” in I
Barrau (ed.), Plants and the Migrations of Pacific Peoples, p. 9.
Suggesting the most likely itinerary of early Buddhists sailing to America,
Arnold and Frost say: “They followed the course of the current to America
and would be thrown on the coast where it struck in it greatest force.
The Pacific Counter Current turns off into two branches on nearing the
coast at about 10 degrees north latitude, part going to the south and part
north. If they took the southern branch they would come in contact with
the Equatorial Current coming up from Peru, and inevitably be carried
out to sea again. On the other hand, if they took the northern branch,
they would be carried for some miles along the coast until about latitude
13 degrees, where the current runs in close, and there would be the most
probable spot for them to land.” Cited in R. Wauchope, Lost Tribes and
Sunken Continents, p- 95.

38. Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, I, p. 2. Paper written by John Edye, and

39.

40.

41.

communicated by Sir John Malcolm.

Wauchope, Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents, p. 92. X
Hawaiki and its dialectal equivalent is an ancient traditional term for?
homeland throughout Polynesia, New Zealand, and Hawaii.
Recently, an Indian scholar, Chhabra, has noted certain Sra
between the symbols found in the petroglyphs from the Hawaiian Pe :
and those on the Harappan Seals. Some of the symbols in the pee
are described as akin to early Brahmi script. B. Ch. Chhabra, “Vestiges j
Indian Culture in Hawaii,” Vishveshvaranand Indological Journal, 1, p“

. 11, 335-37.
42.
43.

D. A. Mackenzie, Myths of Pre-Columbian America, p- iv. ‘ant
Heine-Geldern and Ekholm in Sol Tax (ed.), The Civilizations of An

America, p. 306. 3

830

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER III

Notes to Chapter Il

il,

18.

The terms Further and Greater India are not of Indian, but of French or

Dutch, coinage.

. Cited in G. Coedès, Journal of South East Asian History; September, 1964,

p. 1.

, Ibid., p. 4.
_ P. C. Bagchi, in K. A. Nilakanta Sastri (ed.), Æ Comprehensive History of

India, I, 772.

. B. P. Groslier, Indo-China, p. 47.
. The author of the Periplus even mentions flourishing trade including

malabathron (cinnamon) from which the well-known Roman unguent was
extracted and which doubtless is a corruption of the Sanskrit samalapatra
(the dark leaf), between China and India through the unconscious
mediation of the wild Sesatai people, who possibly lived in the north of
Burma.

- Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese, pp. 185-86.
. Arthur Waley, The Way and Its Power, p. 114, also see B. P. Groslier, Indo-

China, p. 48.

- The stupa as it is at present is an enlargement of the original Asokan

one.

| H. G. Quaritch Wales, The Making of Greater India, pp. 29-31.
- Robert Heine-Geldern, cited in K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, South Indian

Influences in the Far East, pp. 1-2.

- Ibid, p. 3,

~ This subject also raises the question of the existence of the many parallels

between the ancient American civilizations on the one hand and those of
East Asia and Southeast Asia on the other.

: Groslier, Indo-China, p. 41.
TG Coedés, Journal of South East Asian History, Pp- 1-26.
i Groslier, Indo-China, p. 50.

ete are historians who identify places all over the central a 2
o which are closely associated with the stories of Rama ae vana.
z Som Raghavan, India in Ceylonese History, Society and Culture, pp:

=8.
On a full m : :
oon day in December the Buddhi
the arrival of the tree. The sacred Bo-Tree, reputedly 2300 year

sts of Ceylon commemorate
s old, is

831

19.
20.

21.
224

23.
24.

25.

26.

Wek
28.
29.

30.
31.

32.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

in a state of decline. The original branches are dying and it is feared that
in the course of time will wither away. At present the entir
branches are supported by long poles and it is chemically

it alive.

€ tree and its
treated to keep

‘The earliest known alphabet in Ceylon is substantially Asokan Brahmi,
The beautiful Buddha statue of Anuradhapura, draped in the Amaravati
style of thin clinging material without folds, moved Jawaharlal Nehru so
greatly that he carried a picture of the image with him for many years,
Cited in Raghavan, India in Ceylonese History, Society and Culture, p. 93,
Ibid., pp. 108-09.

G. H. Luce in Burma Research Society. 50th Anniversary Publication, No,
2, p. 307.

R. C. Majumdar (ed.), History and Culture of the Indian People, TII. 648.
It is only in this century that the history of the Pagan Period, as well as the
earlier history of Burma, has come to be systematically studied. The main
credit for pioneering the study is due to G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin
who edited the Inscriptions of Burma.

‘The theory that Nanchao was the home of the Thais, who had been driven
out of their original homeland by the Mongols, was first put forward by
Terrien de Lacouperie. A modern writer, Hsu Yun Tsiao, has questioned
it. See The Journal of South Seas Society, IV (2).

Walter Liebenthal, while subscribing to the theory of Indian influence on
Nanchao, is of the Opinion that it reached Tali, Nanchao, in the second
half of the eighth century via Kamarupa and Tibet routes, for he holds the
view that the Burma road was not opened to traffic “until between 791 and
858.” Journal of the Greater India Society, XV (1), 8.

Majumdar, History and Culture of the Indian People, TII, 648.

R. C. Majumdar, Hindu Colonies in the Far East, p- 257.

Cited in R. Le May, Buddhist Art in Siam, p. 10.

Le May, The Culture of South-East Asia, p. 63. :
There has been some controversy about the exact location of this
According to the Kedah annals it was on the west coast. But the oe
favours the east. For a discussion of the point, see D. Devahuti, India a
Ancient Malaya, pp, 22-31. : “ous
A modern writer on Buddhist art. describes somewhat graphically the E
“Waves of Buddhist influence protruding out of India in divergent direc"!

s state:

ae o
ae but converging upon Indo-China: “If we consider the developme™

832 _

49

: Winstedt, The Malays: A Cultural History, p- 27.
; Yavadvipa, to which Sugriva sent search parties loo

-I

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER III

Buddhist art and culture in general, there is, on one hand, a movement
from north-eastern and south-eastern India towards south and south-east
Asia, which makes a slight turn to the north-east and so reaches the border-
line we have mentioned; here in Indochina it encounters another branch
coming from the north, by way of Burma. On the other hand, from the
northern and north-western part of India there is a great migration right
across Central Asia as far as China, where it divides: one line continues
eastwards to Japan via Korea; another turns southwards until it reaches
the Indian sphere of influence along the Annamese-Cambodian border.
Thus the two jaws of a giant pincer movement meet in this area.” See D.

Seckel, The Art of Buddhism, p. 51.

. Groslier, Indo-China, p. 41.
. It has been suggested that the name Mekong has been derived from Ma-

Ganga, Mother Ganges.

. The Mison Stele inscription of King Prakasadharma dated 657, dealing

with the foundation of Bhavapur, the capital of Kambuja.

. Kaundinyas were a well-known class of Brahmans in South India during

the first centuries A.D.

. K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, South Indian Influences in the Far East, p. 48.
. Bid, p. 36.

. See Journal of Indian History, XLI (2), 415.

. Groslier, Indo-China, p. 89.

. Cited in Le May, The Culture of South-East Asia, p. 133.

- Groslier, Indo-China, p. 170.

; Devahuti, India and Ancient Malaya, p. 26.

- Sir Richard W instedt, The Malays: A Cultural History, p. 26.

- Cited in Sastri, South Indian Influences in the Far East, p. 81.
- This view, however, is disputed by Quaritch Wales, although Sastri

seems

to favour the interpretation of Evans.

king for Sita, isa Sanskrit

name mentioned in the Ramayana. Toward the end of the fifth century,

: abhata, the Indian astronomer, wrote that when the sun rose p o
twas midday in Yavakozi (Java) and midnight in di Roman me is
Surya § iddbanta reference is also made to the Nagari Yavakoti with g

Walls and gates.
ndonesians, mixed with Negroids, are found in

833

Madagascar, where

50.

51.

52.

53.

54,
55.

56.

57.
58.
59.

60.
61.

: Indians and Filipinos, because of which certain racial qualities of

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Mongoloid features are strongest in the interior of the island. Itis therefor
> o €
suggested that there was migration from Indonesia to Mad
probably in the first century. A recent writer has even su

the early centuries of the Christian era Africa was the scen

agascar,
gested that in

€ of Indonesian
colonization on a fairly large scale, influencing her culture. This is illustrated

by reference to Madagascar both in regard to vocabulary and musical and
cultural practices. Certain African instruments, and practices are compared
with their Indonesian equivalents, including the drum-xylophone,
clapperless bells, the sese, chorus-singing, oriki (Yoruba praise-songs), the
klama songs of Ghana, and the vocabulary associated with the national
tshikona flutes of the Venda in South Africa. It is the musical evidence
which the author finds most convincing. See A. M. Jones, Africa and
Indonesia.

R.C. Majumdar, History and Culture of the Indian People, TI, 650.

It was during his reign, according to Lineham, who relied on the Malay
Annals, that Singapura, modern Singapore, was founded. But Winstedt
disputes it. See Sir Richard Winstedt, “A Note on the founding of
Singapore,” Journal of South East Asian History, September 1964.

Jules Leclercq, L ile de Java, p- 147, cited in B. R. Chatterjee, India and Java,
P- 37. Ata very popular shrine of the Buddha in Surabaya, East Java, where
Indonesians come in large numbers to worship the image of the Buddha
and to offer gifts—the popularity of this Buddha as a generous dispenser
of boons is very high in the area—the caretaker when asked how he, as 4
Muslim, could make his living out of image-worhip, simply replied that
he was asked to do so by the Muslim, priest.

Sastri, South Indian Influences in the Far East, p. 100.

F. A. Wagner, Indonesia, p. 126.

Heinrich Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, 1. 300. k
This example has been taken from the writing ofa contemporary Indonesian
historian who uses it as an illustration for the same purpose. R. M. Sutjipto
Wirjosuparto, 4 Short Cultural History of Indonesia, p. 22-23.

Gregorio F. Zaide, Philippine Political and Cultural History, 1. 36.
Alfred L. Kroeber, Peoples of the Philippines. p. 11. ,
The three figures include Lao-tzu from China and two others representing
Anglo-Saxon law and justice, and Spain.

Sastri. South Indian Influences in the Far East, p. 144. Ri
An eminent historian of the Philippines suggests ethnic affinity betw

- 834

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER Iv

Filipinos—their dignity of bearing, their stoical outlook on life, and their
indifference to pain and misfortune—were inherited from the Hindus.
Zaide, Philippine Political and Cultural History, 1, 45.

Notes to Chapter I V

_ Edward C. Sachau, A/ Biruni’s India, pp. 22-23.

2. It is one of those strange coincidences of history that when the Indo-
European world was in a state of decline, with flashes of intermittent

m

brilliance, the rest of the world was well on the path of progress.

3. Itis also suggested that the Rajputs, especially the Gurjaras, are the Huns
or peoples who came in their wake.

4. Many Rajput rulers, however, cared a lot for social welfare. Some of them
carried out great irrigation schemes, and most encouraged religion and
earning.

5. There is evidence to suggest that there were larger and finer temples at
centres such as Kanauj, Banaras, Prayag, and Ujjain. Khajuraho and the
Orissan temples survived because they were not in the path of the Muslim
conquerors, who destroyed almost all the ancient temples of northern
India.

- Syed Mahmud, Hindu Muslim Cultural Accord, p. 18.

- Ibid., p. 21.

. Ibid.

- The Christians in the area were also honourably named, but to distinguish

them from the Muslims they were called Nussarani Mappidas.

Elliot and Dawson, I, 115-86.

Nominally though, the Mughals remained sovereigns of India until 1857

when the last ruler, Bahadur Shah II, was deported to Burma by the British.

The East India Company ruled as an agent of the Mughal Emperor.

Th South India, however, there arose the Vijaynagara Kingdom of which

visiting foreigners, Persian, Italian and Portuguese, have left glowing

accounts, It was constantly at war with the neighbouring Beer
ingdom and collapsed in the middle of the sixteenth century, under the
attacks of a coalition of Deccan Sultans.

` Today, at most, ten per cent of the Muslims o

“scended from foreigners. Even in these cases

of the; . was
ee Many ancestors several centuries ag0
e.

GOON OT

10.
11.

12,

f India and Pakistan are

this means only that one
a Turk or Arab or the

835

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

20a.

21.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

The date of Sankara is a matter of controversy: “According to Telan
ang

a century AD,
mkara’s birth,
and Professor
died in A.D, 820, S.

Samkara flourished about the middle or the end of the sixtl
Sir R. G. Bhandarkar proposes A.D. 680 as the date of Sa
and is even inclined to go a few years earlier. Max Miller
Macdonell hold that he was born in A.D. 788 and
Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, Il, 447.

Bhakti, however, began in South India (Tamilnad) long before Sankara,
The earliest Tamil bhakti hymns are older than the Quran, and the cult
reached Maharastra before Islam had made any impression there.

The accuracy of his dates is uncertain. In Arabic the word Kabir means
great, and in the Quran it is one of the names of Allah.

Babur once visited Nanak and said: “In the face of this jagir God is coming
into sight.”

Recently W. H. McLeod has put forward the view that the religion of Guru
Nanak, and so of Sikhism as a whole, is basically Hindu in origin, and that
Muslim influence, although evident, is not of fundamental significance.
Sikhism is firmly embedded in the Sant tradition of northern India, in
the beliefs of the so-called Nirguna Sampradaya. See W. H. McLeod, Te
Influence of Islam upon the Thought of Guru Nanak (a paper read at a seminar
held at Simla in September 1966).

‘There are about ten million Sikhs in India at present, who are reputed for
their enterprise and valour. Their main scripture is called the Granth Sahib
or the Granth. Granth is a Sanskrit word meaning a treatise or book. It
contains about twenty thousand hymns and verses, which were ae
compiled by the fifth Guru of the Sikh religion, Arjun, who was the head
of the order from 1581 to 1606, until his execution by the Mughal Emperor
Jahangir. bad
Despite much greater efforts and vastly improved technological bore
even English has not become the language of the masses in moder
times. rth
A modern writer however refuses the view that the various styles of No A
Indian music were invented by the musicians of the Muslim period: #
Danielou. Northern Indian Music, p. 39.

Some of the better known artists were Mir Saiyid Ali and Khwaja Ab a
Samad of Shiraz, Biswanath, Basawan, Farrukh Beg, Jamshid, Kua
Quli, Miskin, Zal, Tara, Mahesh, Jahan, Haribans, Makbu, Kest

dus,

i Khemakaran, Ram Lal, and Mukund.
22.

me ja 10
The same is equally true of the influence of Western dress on India

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER V

modern times. Whilst men have adapted the European suit to their style
. - wpa 2
Indian women have retained their traditional sari.

Such as the sayyid, sheikh, pathan, malik, momin, mansoor, rayeen, qasale,
A

raki, hajjam, dhobi, teli, and bhat which divide Indian Muslims.

, Murray T. Titus, Islam in India and Pakistan, p. 173.
. R. C. Zachner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism, pp. 93-94.

. “Thus the evidence for Vedantin influence on Abu Yazid is not merely the

fact that his master was a man from Sind, but the inexplicability of many
of his utterances except against a Vedantin background.” Ibid., p.100.

. Murray T. Titus, Ls/am in India and Pakistan, p. 156.
. D. M. Lang, The Wisdom of Balahvar, pp. 24-29.
. Sir Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, III, 462.

Notes to Chapter V

1.

10. p

W. Robertson, An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which
the Ancients Had of Ancient India, p. VE

. Sasetti, who was in India from 1578 to 1588. Cited in Robert Sewell, 4

Forgotten Empire, p. 211.

.C. M. Cipolla, Guns and Sails in Early Phase of European Expansion,

1400-1700.

TAVAT Macdonell, India’s Past, pp- 237-38.
- M. Winternitz, 4 History of Indian Literature, 1, Part 1, 8.
- “Gentoo” was derived from the Portuguese term “gentio” meaning

heathen,

: Forbes, Oriental Memoirs, Il, 212.
» Cited in A. J. Arberry, Oriental Essays, p. 83.
» Jones made his translation from the “Bengali recension,

” which is regarded
agari recension. Boehtlingk was
f this play at Bonn in 1842. No
lished until M. William’s
ublished at

by scholars as less pure than the Devan
the first to edit the Devanagari recension ©
other edition of the text of this recension was pub
first edition in 1853. An edition of the same recension was P
Bombay in 1861, and one at Breslau in 1872 by Burkhard. Indo-
tior to Jones’ discovery of the linguistic affinity aa eee
üropean languages, and independently of the English pn ; =
Studies, the French Orientalist, Joseph Deguignes, had p faie saal r
in the Memoires de Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres identifying

837

11.
12.
13.

14.
15.

16.

17.

18.

19.
20.

21.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Sandrokottos of the Greeks with the Chandragupta of the Indians and
thus producing the basis of Indian chronology and suggesting common
linguistic origins.

G. T. Garratt (ed.), The Legacy of India, p. 31.

M. Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, IV, 379.

F. Egerton regarded Meghaduta as “a glorious love-poem, surely one of the
most beautiful known to man.” Britain, however, continued to produce
Indologists, many of whom, such as G. A. Grierson, Sir Monier Williams,
A. A. Macdonell, R. T. Griffiths, F. W. Thomas, Rapson, A. B. Keith,
Sir Ralph L. Turner, Sir Harold W. Bailey, and T. Burrow, have made
notable contributions.

Jean Filliozat in Indian Studies Abroad, p. 8.

Other texts were discovered by the missions of Sir Aurel Stein, Germany's
Von Le Cog and Grundwedel, and Japan’s Tachibana. A fragmentary
Sanskrit text was accompanied by its Kuchean version.

For example, Hermann Oldenberg’s Das Mahabharata—seine Entstehung,
seine Inhalt, seine Form (The Mahabharata—its Ori igin, Contents and Form),
published in 1922. This work is the most comprehensive and striking ot
its kind.

Whilst Max Müller was engaged in bringing out his series of volumes of
the Rig Veda, another German scholar, Theodor Aufrecht (1822-1907),
Professor of Sanskrit at Edinburgh, published an edition of the complete
text of the Rig Veda in Roman characters in 1861-1863.

The Infinitive in Vedic, with the Verb System of Lithuanian and the Slav
Languages, published in 1871.

Arion Rosu, Indo-Asian Culture, January 1960, pp. 189-91.

Fora fuller appraisal of Indological studies in the West, see V. Regie
Sanskrit and Allied Indological Studies in Europe. Also see Indian Studies
Abroad, Bombay, 1964. d
It was the occurrence of the word Piyadassi in the Mahavamsa that helpe

P ith
Prinsep and other scholars to identify King Piyadassi of the edicts wit
King Asoka.

Notes to Chapter VI

1. A. A. Macdonell, 4 History of Sanskrit Literature, p 1.
2. M. Williams (ed.), Sakuntala, trans. E. B. Eastwick.

$ me i A i a «838

SDN

11.

12.
13.
14,

15,
16.
16a.

_ Marianne Von Herzfeld and C. Melvil Sym (trans.), Letters fr

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER VI

rom Goethe,
p- 514.
Alex Aronson, Europe Looks at India, p. 61.

, Ibid, p. 54.

Winternitz, 4 History of Indian Literature, I, 15.

_ There have been other German statesmen, such as Von Thielmann, Rosen,

and Solf, who devoted their leisure to reading Indian literature.

. Johanne Novel, Central Asia: The Connecting Link Between East and West,

p. 95.

, Alex Aronson, Europe Looks at India, p. 56.

. An English rendering of this verse would be:

At the Ganges the air is filled
with scent and light

And giant trees are flowering

And beautiful, quiet people

Kneel before lotus flowers.

Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea, trans. R. B. Haldane and
J. Kemp, pp. xii-xiii.

Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, p. 339-

Aronson, Europe Looks at India, p. 86.

G.M. Trevelyan English Social History, p. 391. The other wealthy d $
Britons from overseas at the time were the British owners of West Indian
slave plantations, known as Creoles.
George D. Bearce, op. cit., p. 23.
A.J. Arberry, Oriental Essays, p. 82.
S. Foster Damon William Blake—His Philosophy and Symbols, p 365.
Meaden estern Zoa, represents the Body and the senses. His name
undoubtedly derived from Tamas (Tama, or Tamasee), the Hindu name
for Desire. Blake had been reading the Bhagvat-Geeta (London, ve)
and had been so im pressed by it that he made a water-colour ae
Ta iri i anslating the Geeta (No. 84 in Rossetti : ie
of Blake’s paintings). In Lecture XIV of this book is a description z 3
three ‘Goon’: ‘Sarwa truth, Raja passion, and Tama darkness; and ea F
them confineth the incorruptible spirit in the body’ (p- 107). From 3 fs
references to the Goon, it appears that they correspond almost ae
the three lower Zoas: Satwa being Urizen, Pace RR

839

17.

18.

19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

25.
26.
27.
28.
BY),
30.
31.

32.

33.

34,

35.
36.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

being Tharmas. The fourth and highest Zoa, Urthona, is the “ir
spirit’ in the passage quoted above. Needless to say, BI
highly of the Goon than the Brahmins: he desired a harmony of the
four Zoas; they sought the subjection of three to Urthona.” Considering
however that Tharmas is close to Greek Thaumas, both verbally and in
symbolic properties, Harper suggests that Blake possibly borrowed from
both the Neoplatonic (through Taylor) and Indian (through Wilkins)
sources. George Mills Harper, The Neoplatonism of William Blake, p. 181,
See the Times Literary Supplement (London), 9 April 1964, for a review
Désirée Hirst’s Hidden Riches.
Carlyle who preached the gospel of stern manliness was, it is strongly
suspected, in fact impotent.
L. G. Salinger in Boris Ford (ed.), From Blake to Byron, p. 193.
G. T. Garratt (ed.), The Legacy of India, pp. 33-34.
John Ruskin; Lectures in Art, p- 158.
N. Notovick, The Unknown Life of Christ, p. xxx.
G. Subga Rao, Indian Words in English, p. 100.
John Roach, “Liberalism and the Victorian Intelligentsia,” The Cambridge
Historical Journal, XIIL, No.1 (1957), 64.
Sergiu Demetrian, Indo-Asian Culture, July 1965, p. 186.
Tudor Vianu, Indo-Asian Culture, October 1957, p. 189.
Aronson, Europe Looks at India, p. 127.
Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, VI, 494.
Ibid, IX, 197.
Robert Sencourt, India in English Literature, p. 224.
S. D. Kalelkar, “Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi,” The Modern Review, June
1963, p. 460.
Frank Macshane, “Walden and Yoga,” The New England Quar ters
XXXVII, No. 3 (September 1964), 323.
Romain Rolland, Life of Ramakrishna, pp- 12-13. ;
S. D. Kalelkar, “Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi,” Gandhi, Marg, Januan
1964, p. 57. — ;
Amiya Chakravarty in Gandhi Marg, January 1964, p. 67. d
Romain Rolland in Radhakrishnan (ed.), Mahatma Gandhi: Essays ar

ACorruptible
ake thought more

of

. Reflections, p. 197..

S
Westem 1,534, —

z aE se : d
-R. S. Raju in S. Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy: Eastern 5

840

NOTES TO PART II CHAPTER VI

39, A. Aronson, Rabindranath Through Western Eyes, p. xii. Tagore’s works
were so popular in Europe that the librarians would receive requests for his
works from all sections of people, many of whom did not even know his
nationality. A well-known London library was once requested in a letter,
“Please send me a copy of the Jewish writer's book Gitanjali; his name is
Tagore, I think.” Another reader asked, “Have you got the Russian Tagore’s
latest volume.” A third one asked for “a copy please of that Arab poet’s new
volume of songs.” Reported in Hindu, 23-29 March 1914; reproduced in
30 March 1964 issue. Yet there was the American Customs official who
seriously asked Rabindranath Tagore if he could read and write.

39. W. B. Yeats, Autobiography, pp. 91-92.

40. Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, pp. xiii-xiv.

41. Ibid., p, xvii.

42. Kenneth Walker, Diagnosis of Man, p. 248.

43. Despite his having gained the highest office in the Indian State and despite
his many great services to the nation, he had never been a professional
politician. It is a tribute to Indian respect for learning that they should
have chosen a philosopher, rather than a politician, to this supreme office.
The late President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain, was also principally an
academician.

44. Edward Conze, “Dr. Koestler and the Wisdom of the East,” Ze Hibbert
Journal, LIX (1961), 178-81. It is a review of Koestler’s widely read book,
The Lotus and the Robot.

45. Geoffrey Gorer, Exploring English Character, p- 259.

46. G.T. Garratt, op. cit., p 394.

Notes to Chapter VII

v ALP, Taylor, The Eastern Tradition, pp- 62-63.

? John Plamenatz, On Alien Rule and Self-Government, p- 16.

: te Garratt (ed.), The Legacy of India, p- 394.

F Smith, Modern Islam in India, p. 15- E
740, Qureshi in W. Th. de Barry (ed.), Sources of Indian

: Azad,
Mohammad Habib in Hamayun Kabir (ed.), Maulana Abul Kalam Aza

TC 3 eros akistan of today,
°mpating the progress of Islamic learning in India and Pakis ee

: Pakistani professor of Arabic at Karachi University commente
841

10.
11.
12.
13.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

far ahead in this respect... The stark fact is that Arabic-Islamic learning is
simply neglected in our country... How unfortunate that in our schools and
universities Islamic studies is not an academic study but an empty slogan
just part of the Islam-morgering rampant everywhere.” S. M. Yusuf, “The

World of Islam,” Pakistan Times, 19 June 1964.

. Whilst there were democracies of an early variety in India and each in itself

was small in size, they were spread over a much wider area and survived for
many centuries. Hindu India, in any case, knew “government by discussion”
at all levels, right down to the family council.

. Some of the more famous of the many outstanding works are: Mount Stuart

Elphinston’s History of India; Vincent Smith’s Oxford History of India, Asoka,
and Akbar; Sir George Grieson’s Linguistic Survey of India; Colonel Tod's
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan; Romesh Chandra Dutt’s The Economic
History of India.

Cited in Romesh Dutt, The Economic History of India, Il, 194.

Francis Buchanan, Journey From Madras.

Christopher Dawson, Making of Europe, p. 6.

‘The Spanish lay-brother, Joannes Goansalvez, cast a set of Malayan Tamil
characters in 1577. He had joined the Jesuit Society in 1555 and published
several books before his death in 1579. The first book ever printed in India
from his press was entitled, The Rudiments of Catholic Faith.

14. H. N. Brailsford, Subject India, p. 97.

‘O'€ 00S suidws ueiusweeyoy 34L

Ny f SYIJIH
Y 4) b>, Silitdd
Ys CE
de AHL
ta $

ip

y D
my

W

A. D. 100

Vaisali
a ° Pataliputra
ne.

—,
Bodh -baya ae

MAGODHA

esenchi
S UR ASHT RACuUsjayini

India
under Asoka

845

|

Sy FINLAND

=
AAS

as,
i

UES

Romany migration from India

846

OS

847

ISLAM 700-900 A.D.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

28 Seve ae
> ye a refyAves)
DB „puegs? ltd
5393

Go i arai À səmoy ƏpeI epult yuaouy
guvat, = CEN
Seyi) Apueg, \oworcy
D MEN Jesenael wanseuuo loge. ry ;
: ETE

fob 40S»
iga0s0¥d youu

Peas 1129)
Hyaues* PZP6As 09

«°Ae6euppn;
2S Sarg
7
(Rud)
eayrogyed aa oea

co

wou2ue)
(Loe

( IE ON
R tte

yo Bue) ent Sag

>

Ee,
Way sees 8

Led Ee

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abnan, Soheil M. Avicenna, His Life and Works. London: 1958.

Abul-Fazl, Allami. Ain-i-Akbari. Edited by Henry Blochmann. Calcutta: 1873.

Acharya, Pasanna K. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad. (Mansara Series,
Vol. VI.) London: 1946.

Agrawala, Vasudeva S. India As Known to Panini. Lucknow: 1953.

Ainalov, D. V. The Hellenistic Origins of Byzantine Art. New Brunswick: 1961.

Aiyangar, K. V. R. Considerations on Some Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity.
Madras: 1935.

Akhilananda, Swami. Hindu Psychology. New York: 1947.

Akurgal, Ekrem. The Art of the Hittites. New York: 1962.

Al Attas, Syed Naguib. Some Aspects of Sufism as Understood and Practiced Among
the Malays. Singapore: 1963.

Al Beruni’s India. Translated by Edward C. Sachau. 2 vols. London: 1888.

Ali, Abdullah Yusub (tr.). The Holy Quran. 2 vols. New York: 1966.

Ati, T Ameer. The Spirit of Islam. London: 1965. First published London:
1891.

Alip, Euftonio M. Political and Cultural History of the Philippines. 2 vols. Manila:
1950-1952,

ie Tagalog Literature. Manila: 1930.

utt, T. C. (ed.). 4 System of Medicine. London: 1896.
F cn, G. F. The Buddha's Philosophy. London: 1959.

tekar, A. S. State and Government in Ancient India. Banaras: 1949.
Andrae, Tor. Mohammed. The Man and His Faith. London: 1936.
ssaki, Masaharu, Buddhist Art. Boston: 1915.

849

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

. History of Japanese Religion. Tokyo: 1963. First published London:

1930.

. Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet. Cambridge, Mass.: 1949.

Angus, S. The Environment of Early Christianity. London: 1931. First published
1914.

Anthropological Society of Washington. Evolution and Anthropology.
Washington: 1959.

Anuruddha, R. P. An Introduction into Lamaism. Hosiarpur: 1959.

Arberry, A. J. Aspects of Islamic Civilization. London: 1964.

. Classical Persian Literature. London: 1958.

(ed.). The Legacy of Persia. Oxford: 1953.

. Oriental Essays. London: 1960.

. Revelation and Reason in Islam. London: 1957.

. Sufism. London: 1956.

Ardeshir, B., and P. Nanavutty (trs.). Gathas. London: 1952.

Armstrong, A. H. (ed.). Plotinus, London: 1953. (A volume of selections in a
new English translation.)

(ed.). The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy.

Cambridge: 1967.

Arnold. Channing, and Frederick J. Tabor Frost. The American Egypt. New
York: 1909.

Arnold, Sir Thomas Walker. The Caliphate. Oxford: 1926.

and Alfred Guillaume (eds.). The Legacy of Islam. London: 1952. First
published 1931.

Aronson, Alex. Europe Looks at India. Bombay: 1946.
- Rabindranath Through Western Eyes. Allahabad: 1943.

Arrian, F. History of Alexander; and Indica. Translated by E. I. Robson. 2 vols.
London: 1393.

Ashraf, K. M. Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan. Delhi: 1959. First
published 1935.

Aston, W. G. Shinto: The Way of the Gods. London: 1905.

Atiya, Aziz S. Crusade, Commerce and Culture. Bloomington, Ind.: 1962.

Atiyah, Edward. The Arabs. London: 1958. First published 1955.

Auboyer, Jeannine. Daily Life in Ancient India. London: 1961.

| |

Badian, E. Studies in Greek and Roman History. Oxford: 1964.
Bagchi, Prabodha Chandra. India and Central Asia. Calcutta: 1955.

850

ee

BIBLIOGRAPHY
——. India and China, 2nd ed.; New York: 1951. First published Calcutta:
1927.
Bailey, Cyril (ed.). The Legacy of Rome. Oxford: 1951. First published 1923.
Bailey, H. W. Indo-Scythian Studies. Vol. IV. Cambridge: 1961-1963,
Ballantyne. J. R. A Synopsis of Science from the Standpoint of the Nyaya Philosophy.
Vol. I. Mirzapore: 1852.
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America.
5 vols. London: 1875-1876.
Banerjea,’ Jitendra Nath. The Development of Hindu Iconography. 2nd ed.;
Calcutta: 1956. First published 1941.
Banerjee, G. N. Hellenism in Ancient India. 3rd ed.; Delhi: 1961.
Bapat, P. V. (ed.). 2500 Years of Buddhism. Dehli: 1956.
Barber, C. L. The Story of Language, London: 1964.
Barker, Sir Ernest. The Politics of Aristotle. Oxford: 1948.
——, Sir George Clark, and P. Vaucher (eds.). The European Inheritance. Vols.
1, IL, and III. Oxford: 1954.
Barnes, E. W. The Rise of Christianity. London: 1948.
Barnett, L. D. Alphabetic Guide to Sinhalese Folklore from Ballad Sources. Bombay:
1917.
—— (tr.). Sañtideva. London: 1947.
Barrau, J. Plants and the Migrations of Pacific Peoples: A Symposium. Honolulu:
1961.
Barrere, Albert, and Charles G. Leland (eds.). A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon and
Cant. London: 1889.
Barthold, V. V. Four Studies on the History of Central Asia. Translated from the
Russian by V. Minorsky and T. Minorsky. Leiden: 1956-1962. :
Wins Ledecouverts de L’Aise; histoire de Vorientalisme en Europe et en Russie.
Paris: 1947,
R Benimadhab. 4 History of Pre-Buddhist Philosophy. Calcutta: 1921.
oe A. L. The Wonder That Was India. London: 1954. a.
ynes, Cary F, (tr.). The I Ching or Book of Changes. 2 vols. New York: }
(The Richard Wilhelm translations rendered into English.)
ene Norman H. Byzantine Studies and other Essays. London: 1563;
» Samuel, Buddhism in China. London: 1884.
(tr). Si-Yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. 2 vols. London:
1884. (From the Chinese of Hiven Tsiang, A-D. 629.)
- Travels of Hiven Tsiang. Vols. L-IV. Calcutta: 1911.

851

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Beaufort, Duke of, and Alfred E. T. Watson (eds.). The Badminton Library of
Sports and Pastime. (Volume on Dancing by Lilly Grove). London: 1895,

Bell, Sir Charles. The Religion of Tibet. London: 1931.

Bell, Richard. Introduction to the Quran. Edinburgh: 1953.

Benfey, T. Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, Munich: 1869.

. Pantschatantra: Fünf Bücher Indischer Fablen, Märchen und Erzählungen,
2 vols. Leipzig: 1859.

Benitez, Conrado. The Old Philippine Industrial Development, Manila: 1916.

Bernal, Ignacio. Mexico Before Cortez: Art, History and Legend. New York:
1963.

Bernal, J. D. Science in History. London: 1954.

Bernier, Francois. Travels in the Mogol Empire: A.D. 1656—1668. Translated by
A. Constable. London: 1891.

Berque, Jacques. The Arabs, Their History and Future. Translated by Jean Stewart.
London: 1964.

Bevan, E. R. A History of Egypt Under the Ptolemaic Dynasty. London: 1927.

. Later Greek Religion: London: 192 7.

~ Stoics and Sceptics. Oxford: 1913.

and C. Singer (eds.). The Legacy of Israel. Oxford: 1927.

Beveridge, A. S. (tr.). Tue Babar-nama. London: 1921.

Beyer, H. O., and Jaime C. de Veyra. Philippine Saga. Manila: 1952.

Bhargava, K. D. A Survey of Islamic Culture and Institutions. Allahabad: 1961.

Bhatia, Balmokand. Famines in India. Bombay: 1963.

Bhatt, V, V. Aspects of Economic Change and Policy in India 1800-1960. New
Delhi: 1963.

Bhattacharya, Benoytosh Vinayanosha. The Indian Buddhist Iconography: and
ed.; Calcutta: 1956. First published London: 1924.

Bhattachayya, H. (ed.). Cultural Heritage of India. Vols. LIV. 2nd ed.; Calcutta:
1953-1958.

Bible. (Conpateruiz Version). New York: 1957.
Bible. (King James Version). Garden City: 1940.
Bible. (Old Testament). Philadelphia: 1955.
Bible. (Revised Standard Version containing Old and New Testaments): NG
York: 1952.
Bingham, H. Lost City of the Incas, London: 1951.

Birnbaum, Henrik, and Jaan Puhvel Ancient Indo-European Dialects. California:
1965, ;

852

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Black, G. F. A Gypsy Bibliography. Edinburgh: 1909.

Bloch, Jules. Les Tsiganes. Paris: 1953.

Block, Martin (tr.). Gypsies. London: 1938. (The English translation of Zigeuner:
ihr Leben und ihre Seele. Leipzig: 1936.)

Blofeld, J. E. C. The Jewel in the Lotus: An Outline of Present-day Buddhism in
China, London: 1948.

Bloomfield, M. The Religion of the Veda, the Ancient Religion of India. London:
1908.

Boas, Franz. Mind of Primitive Man. New York: 1911. Rev. ed. 1938.

Bode, M. H. The Pali Literature of Burma. London: 1959.

Bohtlingt, Otto yon, and R. Roth. Sanskrit-German Dictionary. 7 vols. St.
Petersburg: 1852-1875.

Bopp, Franz. 4 Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin,
Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Slavonic Languages. 3 vols. London:
1845-1850.

— Glossarium Sanscritum, Berolini: 1830.

Borrow, G. The Bible in Spain. 3 vols. London: 1843.

——. The Gypsies of Spain. London: 1907. First published in two volumes
in 1841,

——-. Lavengro, 3 vols. London: 1851.

——. Romano Lauo-Lil, London: 1919. First published 1874.

Ss he Romany Rye. 2 vols. London: 1857.

—, The Zincali. 2 vols. London: 1841.

Bosanquet, Bernard. Science and Philosophy. London: 1927.

Bosch, F. D. K. Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. Trans

; The Hague: 1961.

oss, Medard. 4 Psychiatrist Discovers India. Translate

London: 1965. “2
Bouquet, A. C. The Christian Faith and Non-Ghristian Religions. Welwyn:

1958,
Rovers, Faubion. Japanese Theatre. New Yo
wie, John. 4 New Outline of World History. London: 1962. e
E Wa Political Thought. London: 1961. First publis ;

Bowra
, C. M. The Greek Experience. London: 1957.

Boxer, C. R. The Christian 3 ntury in Japan 4549-1650. Berkeley, Los Angeles,
and London: 1951. x P
yet, A.M. E. J. Rapson, and E. Senart (trs. and eds.). Kharoshthi Inscriptions

E

Jated by S. Lewis.

d by Henry A. Frey.

rk: 1952.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Discovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Oxford: 1920-1927.

Braddell, Roland. Study of Ancient Times in the Malay Peninsula. J. R. A. S. (M,
B.) Vols. XIV, XV, XVII.

Brennan, Louis A. No Stone Unturned. New York: 1959.

Briggs, L. P. The Ancient Khmer Empire. Philadelphia: 1951.

Brinkley, Captain F., and Baron Kikuchi. A History of the Japanese People. New
York and London: 1912, 1914, 1915.

Brinkley, Frank. Japan—lIts History, Arts and Literature. 8 vols. Boston and
Tokyo: 1901-1902.

Brion, Marcel. The World of Archaeology; Central Asia, Africa and the Near East.
Translated by Neil Mann. London: 1962.

. The World of Archaeology; India, China and America. Translated by Miriam
and Lionel Kochan. London and New York: 1961.

British Broadcasting Corporation (compiled by). The Western Tradition. London:
1949.

Brown, Irving. Deep Song. New York and London: 1929.

Brown, L. W. The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. Cambridge: 1956.

Brown, Percy. Indian Architecture. Bombay: 1962.

. Indian Painting Under the Mughals. Oxford: 1924.

Brown, T. Burton. Excavations in Azarbaijan 1948. London: 1951.

Brown, W. Norman (ed.). India, Pakistan, Ceylon. New York: 1950.

(ed. and tr.). The Saundarya lahari (by Sankaracarya). Cambridge, Mass.:
1958.

Browne, Edward G. A. A Literary History of Persia. 4 vols. Cambridge: 1928.

Bruce, Joseph Percy. Chu Hsi and His Masters. London: 1923.

Brunton, Paul. The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga. London: 1962. First published
1941.

- Indian Philosophy and Modern Culture. London: 1937.

Buck, Peter H. Vikings of the Pacific. Chicago: 1959.

Buhler, G. Encylopaedia of Indo-Aryan Research. Strasbourg: 1896. A

. Indian Palaeograpby. (An appendix to the Indian Antiquary, ¥°
XXXIII.) Bombay: 1904. z

Bultmann, Rudolf. Primitive Christianity. London and New York: 1956.

Burckhardt, Jacob. History of Greek Culture. Translated by Palmer Hilty. London:
1964.

Burke, Edmund. Works. 16 vols. London: 1803-1827.

A 854

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burke, Marie Louise. Swami Vivekananda in America: New Discoveries. Calcutta:

1958.

Burland, C. A. Art and Life in Ancient Mexico. Oxford: 1943.

Burlingame, E. W. (tr.). Buddhist Parables. New Haven: 1922.

Burma. Fiftieth Anniversary Publications. Vol. II. Rangoon: 1960.

Burrows, Millar. More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls. London: 1958.

Burton, Sir Richard. The Book of Thousand Nights and a Night. 12 vols. London:
1897. First published Banares: 1885.

and F. F. Arbuthnot (trs.). The Kama-sutra of Vatsyayana. London:
1963.

Bushnell, G. H. D. Peru. London: 1956.

Butler, A. J. The Arab Conquest of Egypt. Oxford: 1902.

Cajori, Florian. 4 History of Mathematics. New York and London: 1894. 2nd
ed.; New York: 1919.

Calder, Ritchie. The Inheritors. London: 1961.

——.. Medicine and Man. London: 1958.

The Cambridge Ancient History. Vols. I-XII. London: 1923-1939.

Cannon, Garland, H. Oriental Jones. New Delhi and New York: 1964.

Carmichael, Joel. The Death of Jesus. London: 1963.

Carpenter, Frederic I. Emerson and Asia. Cambridge: 1930.

Carpentier, J. E. Theism in Medieval India. Lectures delivered in Essex Hall,
Laden, October-December 1919. London: 1921.

Carter. G F. “Disharmony between Asiatic Flower-Birds and American Bird-
Flowers.” Amer. Antiquity, XX, No.2 (1954), 176-177.

———. “Plant Evidence for Early Contacts with America.” Southwest. J.

Anthrop., VI (1950), 161-182.
— ‘Plants across the Pacific.” Amer. Antiquity (Mem.), XVII, No. 3, Pt.

2 (1953), 62-71.
Carter, Thomas Francis. The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread
Westwards. Revised by L. Carrington Goodrich. New York: 1955. First
published 1925.
Cary, M4 History of the Greek World from 323 to 146
First published 1932.
Sl Th J. Harhoff Life and Thought in the Greek and Roman World.
London: 1957. S
Cazamial Louis Francois. 4 History
as

B.C. 2nd ed.: London: 1951.

of French Literature. Oxford: 1955.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Chai, Ch’u and Chai Winberg. The Changing Society of China. New York: 1962.

Chakravarti, Chandra. An Interpretation of Ancient Hindu Medicine. Calcutta:
1923.

Chakravarti, Chintaharan. Tantras: Studies on their Religion and Literature.
Calcutta: 1963.

Chan, Wing Tsit. Religious Trends in Modern China. Columbia: 1953.

Chand, Tara. History of the Freedom Movement in India, Vol. I. Delhi: 1961.

. Influence of Islam on Indian Culture. Allahabad: 1936.

Chang, Chia-Sen (Dr. Carsun). China and Gandhian India. Calcutta: 1956.

. The Development of Neo-Confucaon Thought, London: 1958.

Charlesworth, M. P. Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire.
Cambridge: 1924.

Chaterjee, Ashkok Kumar. The Yogacara Idealism. Varanasi: 1962.

Chatterjee, B. R. India and Java. 2nd ed. revised and enlarged (parts 1 and 2);
Calcutta: 1933.

. Indian Cultural Influence in Cambodia. Calcutta: 1928.

Chatterji, A. C. India’s Struggle for Freedom. Calcutta: 1947.

Chattopadhyaya, Debiprasad. Lokayata. New Delhi: 1959.

Chaudhari, Haridas, and Frederick Spiegelberg (eds.). The Integral Philosophy of
Sri Aurobindo, London: 1960.

Chen, Kenneth K. S. Buddhism in China. Princeton: 1964.

Chen, Shou-Yi, Chinese Literature. New York: 1961.

Chhabra, B. Chi. Expansion of Indo-Aryan Culture. Delhi: 1965.

Chiang-Kunag, Chou. Mahayana Buddhism in China. Allahabad: 1960.

Childe, V. Gordon. The Aryalls—A Study of Indo-European Origins. London:
9265

wn of Hes OSEEN OT London: 1961. First published

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cipolla, Carol M. Guns and Sails in the Early Phase of European Expansion,
1400-1700. London: 1964.

Clebert, Jean Paul. The Gypsies. Translated by Charles Duff. London: 1963.

Clements, E. Introduction to the Study of Indian Music. London: 1913.

Coe, Michael D. Mexico. London: 1962.

Coedés, G. Les Peuples de la Peuinsule Indochinoise. Dunod. Paris: 1962.

—— . The Making of South East Asia. California: 1966.

and E. de Boccard. Les Etats Hindoisés d'Indochine et a’Indonésie. Paris:
1948.

Cole, Sonia Mary. Races of Man. London: 1963.

Colebrooke, H. T. Algebra, with Arithmetic and Mensuration from the Sanskrit of
Brahmagupta and Bhascara. 2nd ed.; Calcutta: 1927.

. Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus. London: 1927.

Colum, Padraic. Orpheus. Myths of the World. New York: 1930.

Congress Commemoration Volume. To the Gates of Liberty. Calcutta: 1948.

Conze, Edward. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development. Oxford: 1951.

—— (selected and tr.). Buddhist Scriptures. London: 1959.

—_—. Buddhist Texts Through the Ages. Oxford: 1955.

——. Buddhist Thought in India. London: 1962.

Cook, Arthur B. Zeus—A Study in Ancient Religion. 3 vols. Cambridge:
1914-1940,

Cook, O. F. “The Origin and Distribution of the Cocoa Palm.” Contr. U.S.
National Herbarium (Washington), VII, No. 2 (1901), 257-293.

Coomaraswamy, A. K. The Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon. New York:
1964,

oe Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism: Bombay: 1956. First published

16.
+ Ceylon Bronzes Chiefly in the Colombo Museum. Colonies A
Wo Te Dance of Shiva. New York: 1959. First published $ revise
7.

4.

d form,
194

“Hinduism and Buddhism. New York: 1943: 927. New York: 1965

Sa History of Indian and Indonesian Art, London: 1 blished 1908

>: Medieval Sinhalese Art. New York: 1956: vor 3

__ >: Be Origins of the Buddha Image. New ‘te Je 1984, 1956.

SSS The Transformation of Nature in Art. New ae sof the lindis and

~and Sister Nivedita (Margaret E- Noble). me [yi e eg 3
Buddhists. London: 1916. ; |

857

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Coulborn, Rushton. The Origin of Civilized Societies. Oxford and Princeton:
1959.

Couling, S. The Encyclopedia Sinica. London: 1917.

Cowell, E. B. The Buddha-Charita of Asvaghosha. London: 1893.

(ed.), The Jataka. Vols. I-VI. London: 1957. First published 1895-
1913.

Cowley, A. E. The Hittites. London: 1920.

Cox, G. W. Introduction to the Science of Comparative Mythology and Folklore.
London: 1881.

. Mythology of the Aryan Nations. 2 vols. London: 1870.

Cox, M. E. R. Cinderella. London: 1893.

Craveri, Marcello. The Life of Jesus. Translated from Italian by Charles L.
Harkmann. New York: 1967.

Crawfurd, John. History of Indian Archipelago. 3 vols. Edinburgh: 1820.

Creel, H. G. Chinese Thought. Chicago: 1953.

. Confucius, The Man and the Myth. New York: 1949.

Cresson, Andre. The Essence of Ancient Philosophy. Translated by Veronica Hull.
New. York: 1963.

Croce, Benedetto. History of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by
Henry Furst. London: 1965. First published 1934.

Crombie, A. C. (ed.). Scientific Change. London: 1963.

Crombie, I. M. An Examination of Plato’s Doctrines. London: 1962-1963.

Crooke, W. The Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India. 2 vols. London:
1896.

Culin, R. Stewart. Chess and Playing Cards. Washington: 1898.

. Games of the North American Indians. Washington: 1907.

. Games of the Orient. Rutland, Vt.: 1958. (First published under title
Korean Games.)

Cumont, Franz Valery Marie. The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. New
York: 1956. First published 1911.

Cunningham, A. Ancient Geography of India. Calcutta: 1924.

Cunningham, J. D. A History of the Sikhs. Oxford: 1918.

Dabbs, Jack A Dea) of the Dreva and Exploration of Chinese Turkestan:
The Hague: 1963.

Dahlquist, Allan. Megasthenes and Indian Religion. Stockholm: 1962.
: Dans oe H. E and T D of Eastern India. Calcutta: 1960.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Daniel, Norman. Islam and the West. Edinburgh: 1960.

Danielou, Alain. Introduction to the Study of Musical Scales. London: 1943.

___—. Northern Indian Music. Vols. I and I. London and Calcutta: 1949.

——. Yoga: The Method of Re-integration. New York: 1956.

Danvers, F. C. The Portuguese in India. 2 vols. London: 1894.

Das, M. N. The Political Philosophy of Jawaharlal Nehru. New York and London:
1961.

Dasgupta, R. P. A Study of Hindu and European Political Systems. Calcutta:
1958.

Dasgupta, S. B. An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism. Calcutta: 1950.

Dasgupta, S. N. (ed.). A History of Sanskrit Literature. Vol. I. Calcutta: 1962.

Dasgupta, Surama. Development of Moral Philosophy in India. Calcutta: 1961.

. Indian Idealism. Cambridge: 1933.

Dasgupta, Surendranath. A History of Indian Philosophy. Vols. I-V. Cambridge:
1952-1957. First published 1922.

Datta, B. Vibhuti. The Science of the Sulba, A Study in Early Hindu Geometry.
Calcutta: 1932.

Datta, K. K. Dawn of Renascent India. Nagpur ; 1950.

Davar, Firoz C. Iran and India Through the Ages. Bombay and New York:
1963.

Davids, T. W. Rhys. History and Literature of Buddhism, 4th ed.; Calcutta: 1952.
First published London: 1918.

— (tr.). The Questions of King Milinda. 2 parts- New York: 1963.

Davidson, J, Leroy. The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Art. New Haven: 1954.

Davies, A. P. The First Christian. New York: 1957.

o ae Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: 1960.

Davis, Simon. Race-Relations in Ancient Egypt. London: 1951.

Dawson, Christopher Henry. The Making of Europe. London: 1946.

Dawson R ina. Oxford: 1964.
» Raymond (ed.). The Legacy of China. oa:
ayal, Har. The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. London:
1932.
D
© Bary, Wm. Theodore. Sources of Indian
- Sources of the Japanese Tradition. New
et al. (eds.). Sources of Chinese Tradition.
: Burgh, W. G. The Legacy of the Ancient World. Vols. I
Furst published 1924.

Tradition. New York: 1958.

York: 1958.
New York: 1960.
and II. London: 1953.

359

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Defréniery, C., B. R. Sanguinetti, and H. A. R. Gibb (eds. and trs.). Travels of
Ibn Battuta. Cambridge: 1958.

De Gokuldas. Democracy in Early Buddhist Samgha. Calcutta: 1955.

. Significance and Importance of Jatakas. Calcutta: 1951.

De Meester, Marie E. Oriental Influences in the English Literature of the Nineteenth
Century. Heidelberg: 1915.

Deraniyagala, P. E. P. “Human and Animal Motif in Sinhalese Art.” 1. R.4.S,
(C.B.), IV, Pt. 1.

Desai, A. R. Recent Trends in Indian Nationalism. Bombay: 1960.

. Social Background of Indian Nationalism. Bombay: 1948.

Deussen, Paul. Outline of Indian Philosophy. Berlin: 1907.

. Outline of the Vedanta System of Philosophy. Berlin: 1907.

. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Edinburgh: 1906.

Devandra, D. T. Classical Sinhalese Sculpture. London: 1958.

Devahuti, D. India and Ancient Malaya. Singapore: 1965.

. Harsha. A Political Study. Oxford: in Press.

De Visser, M. W. Ancient Buddhism in Japan. 2 vols. Leiden: 1925-1935.

Dey, N. L. Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval India. London:
1927.

Dhalla, Maneckji Nusservanji. Zoroastrian Civilization. New York: 1922.

Diaz, Bernal. The Conquest of New Spain. Translated by J. M. Bohen. London:
1963. First published in Spanish 1632.

Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen. London: 1885.

Dixon, Roland B. The Mythology of all Races: Oceania. Edited by Louis Herbert
Gray. Boston: 1916. (Vol. IX of the thirteen-volume series on world
mythology.)

Dobie, M. R. Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization. London: 1927.

Doblhofer, Ernst. Voices in Stone. Translated by Mervyn Savill. London:
1961. ae

Dodd, C. H. The P. arables of the Kingdom. London: 1956. First published

OI eee ;

Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: 1951,1956.
ary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography)
> 1879. 2

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Duff, Charles (St. Lawrence). A Mysterious People. London: 1965.

Dumoulin, Heinrich. The Development of Chinese Zen. New York: 1953.

Durant, Will. Zhe Story of Civilization. 6 vols. New York: 1942.

pe he Age of Faith. New York: 1950.

—— Caesar and Christ. New York: 1944.

_——. The Life of Greece. New York: 1939.

_——. Our Oriental Heritage. New York: 1942.

——. The Reformation. New York: 1957.

—— The Renaissance. New York: 1953.

Dutt, Nalinaksha. Early Monastic Buddhism, 2 vols. Calcutta: 1941.

Dutt, Romesh Chunder. The Early Hindu Civilization. London: 1888. Calcutta:
1908.

. The Economic History of India. 2 vols. London: 1902.

Dutt, R. Palme. India Today. London: 1940.

Dutt, Sukumar. Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India. London: 1962.

Eberhard, Wolfram (tr.). Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales. London: 1937.

——.. History of China. 3rd ed.; London: 1955.

Eckardt, A. 4 History of Korean Art. London: 1929.

Edgerton, Franklin. The Bhagavad Gita. Cambridge. Mass.: 1966.

—— (ed. and tr.). The Panchatantra. London: 1965.

— Panchatantra Reconstructed. 2 vols. New Haven: 1924.

Edmunds, A. J., and M. Anesaki. The Buddhist and Christian Gospels. 4th ed.;
Philadelphia: 1935.

Edwards. C. R, “Sailing Rafts of Sechura-
Southwest. I. Anthrop., XVI (1960), 368-334.

Edwards. E, D. Chinese Prose Literature of the Tang Period. 2 vols. London:

ah 1937-1938, ;

tenberg, Vi , Oxford: 1960.

Bales yee ere. Focus of Asiatic Influence in the Late
Classic Cultures of Meso America.” Amer. Antiquity, XVII, No. 3, Pt. 2
(1953),72-89, Bs .

oan “A Possible Focus of Asiatic ae in

exico, Mem. Soc. Amer. Arch, 9, 179

llade, Mirc ee and Freedom. Princeton: 195 7

Eliot, Sir Charles N. E. Japanese Buddhism. London: Be, 1959.
ace inte udabist. oo 1954.

REA Sa

History and Problems of Origin.”

the Late Classic Culture of

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Ellis, William. Po/ynesian Researches. 4 vols. 2nd ed.; London: 1832-1834.

El Mansouri, S. M. Art Culture of India and Egypt. Calcutta: 1959,

Elsee, C. Neoplatonism in Relation to Christianity. Cambridge: 1908,
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Chicago: 1964.

Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden and London: 1960. First published 1911-1938.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1908-1926. 13 vols. Edinburgh.

Enslin, M. Christian Beginnings. New York: 1956. First published 1938,
Epstein, I. (ed. and tr.). The Babylonian Talmud. 5 vols. London: 1935-1952,
Ernst, Earle. The Kabuki Theatre. Oxford: 1956.

Evans-Wentz, W. Y. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. London: 1927.

. The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. London: 1954. (With
psychological commentary by C. G. Jung.)

. Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines. London: 1935.

——. Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa. London: 1951.

Fabri, Charles Louis. An Introduction to Indian Architecture. London and Bombay:
1963. :

Fairbank, John K. (ed.). Chinese Thought and Institutions. 2nd ed.; Chicago:
1959,

Fairbank, J. K., E. O. Reischauer, and A. M. Craig. A History of East Asian
Civilization. 2 vols. London: 1960.

Faris, Nabih Amin (ed.). The Arab Heritage. Princeton: 1944.

Farnell, Lewis Richard. Greek Hero Cults Ideas of. Immortality, Oxford: 1921.

Farquhar, J. N. Modern Religious Movements in India. London: 1915.

-An Outline of the Religious Literature of India. London: 1920.

Faruqi, Ziya-ul-Hasan. The Deobund School and the Demand l for Pakistan. London

and Bombay; 1963.

is le. The Divine Rights of Kings. New York: 1965. (Introduction

on.) First published 1896.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fiske, John. Myths and Myth-makers. Boston: 1873.

Fleet, J. F. (ed.). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Gupta Inscriptions. Vol. TII.
Calcutta: 1888.

Forbes, Charles. Oriental Essays. London: 1813.

Ford, Boris (ed.). From Blake to Byron. London: 1957.

Forke, A. The World Conception of the Chinese. London: 1925.

Fosberg, F. Raymond. “The American Element in the Flora of Hawaii.” Pacific
Science, V (1951), 204—206.

Fox-Strangways, A. H. The Music of Hindostan. Oxford: 1914.

Fradier, Georges. East and West. Paris: 1959.

Framjee, Firoze. Ex glish Text Book on Theory and Practice of Indian Music. Pona:
1938.

Francisco, Juan R. Indian Influences in the Philippines. Quezon City: 1964.

Frank, Tenney. Aspects of Social Behavior in Ancient Rome. Cambridge, Mass.:
1932.

Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough. 12 vols. London: 1911-1927.

Friedrich, R. The Civilization and Culture of Bali. Edited by E. R. Rost. Calcutta:
1959. First published 1987.

Furtado, R. de L. Three Painters: Amrita Sher-Gil, George Keyt and M. F. Hussain.
New Delhi: 1960.

Gallenkamp, Charles. Maya. New York: 1959.

Gamio, Manuel. Cultural Evolution in Guatemala and its Geographic and
Historic Handicaps. Translated from the Spanish by Arthur Stanley Riggs.
Washington: 1926.

Gandhi, M. K. Autobiography. Washington: 1948.

Cangoly, O. C. Landscape in Indian Literature and Art. Lucknow: 1964.

Garbe, Richard (ed.). The Samkhya-pravacana-bhasya. Cambridge, Mass.:
1895.

Card, Richard A. Buddhist Influences on the Political Thought and Institutions of
India and Japan. Claremont, Calif: 1949.

ardiner , Patrick. Schopenhauer. London: 1963. E

atratt, G. T. (ed.). The Legacy of India. Oxford: 1 :

Garrison, F. H. An Introduction to the History of Medicine. Philadelphia: 1961.

First published 1913. o
àtstang, John. Th Hittite Empire. London: i
Gaas ao ee Maurice: Muslim Institutions. London: 1950.

863

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Geertz, Clifford (ed.). Old Societies and New States. New York: 1963.

Geiger, W. The Mahavamsa. Vols. I and II. London: 1912.

Getty, Alice. The Gods of Northern Buddhism. Tokyo: 1962. First published
Oxford: 1914.

Gheerbrant, Alain. The Incas. New York: 1961.

(ed.). The Incas: The Royal Commentaries of the Inca, Garcilaso de la Vega,
1539-1616. Translated by Maria Jolas, London: 1963.

Ghirshman, Roman. Iran: Parthians and Sassanians. Translated by Stuart Gilbert
and James Emmons. London: 1962.

Ghosh, Manomohan. A History of Cambodia. Saigon: 1960.

Ghosh, P. C. The Development of the Indian National Congress 1892-1909,
Calcutta: 1960.

Ghoshal, U. N. 4 History of Indian Political Ideas. Bombay: 1959.

Gibb, H. A. R. Arabic Literature, an Introduction. London: 1926.

. Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey. New York: 1955.

. Studies on the Civilization of Islam. London: 1962.

and Harold Bowen. Is/amic Society and the West. 2 vols. London: 1950,
1957.

Gibbon, E. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Edited by J. B. Bury. Vols.
I-VII. London: 1909-1914. First published 1776-1788.

. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: 1960. (An
abridgement by D. M. Low.)

Giles, H. A. Confucianism and Its Rivals. London: 1915.

(ed.). Gems of Chinese Literature, New York: 1965. First published 1923

in two volumes.

. A History of Chinese Literature. New York: 1958. First published

1901.

- Religions of Ancient China, London: 1918.

Giles, L. (tr:). The Book of Mencius. London: 1942.

- (tr.). Lao Tzu. London: 1926.

=(tr.). Tao Te Ching. London: 1954.

Gilkes, A. N. The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls. London: 1962.

Gladwin, H. S. Men out of Asia. New York: 1947.

K (ed.). The Legacy of Egypt. Oxford: 1953.

sImuth von. Kant. and the =e of the East. Germany: 1954.

ya. Ne

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goldenveizer, Aleksandr. History, Psychology and Culture. New York: 1933.
Goldin, Judah (tr.). The Living Talmud, New York: 1957.
Goldstucker, Theodore. Sanskrit and Culture. Calcutta: 1955.
Goldziher, 1. The Influence of Buddhism Upon Islam, English translation by T.
Duka in the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, January 1904, pp. 125-141.
Gomperz, Theodor. Greek Thinkers. Vols. I-II translated by Laurie Magnus; Vol.
IV, by G. G. Berry. London: 1901-1912.

Gonda, J. Sanskrit in Indonesia, Nagpur: 1952.

Gordon, Antoinette, K. The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism. New York; 1939.
2nd rev. ed.; Tokyo: 1959.

Gorer, Geoffrey. Exploring English Character. London: 1955.

Gosvami, O. The Story of Indian Music. Bombay: 1957.

Govinda (Lama) Angarika B. The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist
Philosophy. London: 1961.

Granet, Marcel. Chinese Civilization. 3rd printing; New York: 1960. First
published London: 1930.

Grant, Michael. Myths of the Greeks and Romans. London: 1962.

Grant, R. M. (ed.). Gnosticism: An Anthology. London: 1961.

——. Gnosticism and Early Christianity. New York: 1959.

Grattan, C. Hartley. The South West Pacific to 1900. Ann Arbor, Mich.: 1963.

Gray, Basil. Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-Huang. Chicago: 1959.

Gray, Denis, Spencer Perceval. Manchester: 1963.

Gregg, Richard B. The Power of Non-Violence. Philadelphia: 1934.

Grellmann, Heinrich. Dissertation on the Gipsies. London: 1787.

Griffis, William Elliot. Corea: The Hermit Nation. 6th ed.; New York: 1897.
First published London: 1882.

Griffiths, Sir Percival Joseph. The British Impact on India. London: WE

Grimal, Pierre. The Civilization of Rome. Translated by W. S. Maguinness.
London:

timm, J e and Wilhelm C. Grimm. German Folk Tales. Translated by

V. P. Magoun Jr. and A. H. Krappe. Carbondale, Il.: 1960.

Sriswolq A.B ‘het. London: 1964.
, A. B. Burma, Korea, Tibet. Lon ;
toenveldt, W. P. Historical Notes on Indonesia and Malaya. Djakarta: 1960.

(Compiled from Chinese Sources). The reprint ofan eee published in
1880. | i =
Groome, F, H, Gypsy Folk Tales. London: 1887-
— In Gypsy Tents. Edinburgh: 1880:

865

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Groslier, Bernard Philippe. Indochina. Translated by George Lawrence, London:
1962.

Grote, George. Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates. 3 vols. London:
1875.

Grousset, René. Chinese Art and Culture. Translated from the French by Haakon
Chevalier. London: 1959.

. The Civilization of India. Translated from the French by Catherine
Alison Phillip. Delhi: 1964.

——.. In the Footsteps of the Buddha. London: 1932.

. Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines. London: 1945.

——. The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire. Translated from the French
by A. Watson Gandy. California: 1953.

Grunebaum, G. E. Von. Islam. 2nd ed.; London: 1961. First published 1955.

- Medieval Islam: A Study in Cultural Orientation. Chicago: 1953.

. Modern Islam: The Search for Cultural Identity, Berkeley: 1962.

(ed.). Unity and Variety in Muslim Civilization. Chicago: 1955.

Gubematis, Angelo de. Zoological Mythology. London: 1872.

Gulabkunyerba Ayurvedic Soc., Shree. The Caraka Sammita. 6 vols. Jamnagar:
1949.

Gulik, Sidney Lewis. The East and the West. Rutland, Vt.: 1963.

Gurjar, L. V. Ancient Indian Mathematics and Veda. Poona: 1947.

Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greek Philosophers from Tholes to Aristotle. London:
1956.

—. A History of Greek Philosophy. Vol. 1. Cambridge: 1962.

—. Orpheus and Greek Religion. 2nd ed.; London: 1952.
Guy, Basil. The French Image of China Before and After Voltaire. Geneva: 1963.

_ Monism: As Connecting Religion and Science. Translated
n; 1894, peat
The Ancient Sun Kingdoms. Cleveland: 1961.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hanayama, Shinsho. 4 History of Japanese Buddhism, Tokyo: 1960.

Hans, H. Bibliographie Zur Frage nach den Wechselbexiehung Zurschen Buddhismus
und Christianismus. Leipzig: 1922.

Happold, F. C. Mysticism. Hammondsworth: 1963.

Harden, Donald. The Phoenicians. London: 1962.

Hardie, J. Keir. India. London: 1909.

Harper, G. M. The Neopkitonism of William Blake. Chapel Hill: 1961.

Hartland, E. S. Science of Fairy Tales. London: 1889.

Harvey, G. E. History of Burma. London: 1925.

Haskins, Charles Homes. Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science. New York:
1960. First published 1924.

Hatt, Gudmund. “Asiatic Influences in America Folklore.” Det Kgl. Danske
Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-Filoogiske meddelelser, KXXI, No. 6 (1949),
1-122.

—— “The Corn Mother in America and in Indonesia.” Anthropos, XLVI
(1951),853-914.

—— “Early Intrusion of Agriculture in the North Atlantic Subarctic Region.”
Univ. Alaska Anthrop. Pap., II, No.1 (1953), 51-107.

Havell, E. B. The Art Heritage of India. London: 1964.

~~: The History of Aryan Rule in India. London: 1918.

Hazrat, Bikrama Jit. Dara Shikub: Life and Works. Visvabharati: 1953.

Heath, Sir Thomas L. Diophantos of Alexandria. Cambridge: 1885.

Hedin, Sven. Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia 1899-1902. 6 vols.
Stockholm: 1904-1907.

__ >: Southern Tibet. 13 vols. Stockholm: 1916-1922.

Heimann, Betty. Facets of Indian Thought. London: 1964.

~_—. Indian and Western Philosophy. London: 1937.

Heimsath, Charles H. Indian Nationalism and Hindu Social Reform. Princeton:
1964. er

“ine-Geldem, Robert, “Asiatische Ho der Sudamerikanischen

atalitechik.” Paideuma, V (1954), 347-423. peices
ss ae Re of Polynesian Origins: A Criticism.” Royal
ee Society Journal, CXVI ee ee
» Joseph, a aye, ion. Cambridge: k; ;
enke, ee, “te and ed): Te Päilasepy of Wang Yang-Ming

ished 1916.
2nd ed. New York: 1964. First published 19 Js. London: 1962-1963.

“riques, Fernando Prostitution and Society: 2yo
yen tee

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Hermann, A. Historical Atlas of China. Cambridge, Mass.: 1935.

Hertel, Johannes. Das Pancatantra Seine Geschichte und seine Verbreitung. ‘Leipzig
and Berlin: 1914.

Hervieux, Leopold. Les Fabulistes Latins depms Le Siècle d'Auguste jusquà la fin
du moyen age. 5 vols. Pans: 1893-1899,

Heyden A., A. M. Van Der, and H. A. Schullard. Alas of the Classical World.
London: 1963.

Heyerdahl, Thor. The Kon-Tiki Expedition. London: 1950.

Hicks, R. D. Stoic and Epicurean. London: 1910.

Hiriyanna, M. The Essentials of Indian Philosophy. London: 1949.

. Outlines of Indian Philosophy. London: 1932.

Hirst, Désirée. Hidden Riches. Traditional Symbolism from the Renaissance to
Blake. London: 1964.

Hitti, Philip K. History of the Arabs. London: 1956.

. Islam and the West. Princeton: 1962.

Hobson, J. A. Imperialism: A Study. London: 1902.

Hocart, A. M. Kingship. London: 1941.

Hodgen, Margaret T. Early Anthropology in the 16th and 17th Centuries.
Pennsylvania: 1964.

Hodous, Lewis. Buddhism and Buddhists in China: New York: 1924.

Hernle, A. F. R. Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature. Oxford. 1916.

. Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India. Oxford: 1907.

Holtom, D. C. Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism. 2nd ed.; Chicago: 1947.

. The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. London: 1938.

Honore, Pierre. In Quest of the White God. London: 1963.

Hopkins, E. Washburn. Epic Mythology. Strasbourg: 1915.

. Ethics of India. New Haven: 1924.

Hottinger, Arnold. The Arabs. London: 1963.

Hourani, G. F. Arab Seafaring In the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval
Times. Princeton: 1951.

Hoyland, John. A Historical Survey of the Customs, Habits and Present State of the
Gypsies. New York: 1816.

Hoyle, Fred. The Nature of the Universe. Oxford: 1950.

Hui-li. The Life of Hsuan-Tsang. Peking: 1959.

Hanes Johan. Men and Ideas. Translated by James’ S. Holmes and Hans va?
Marle. New York: 1959.

Hull, Denison B. (tr). Aesop's Fables. Chicago: 1960.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hultzsch, E. (ed.). Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Inscriptions of Asoka. Vol.

I. Oxford: 1925.

Humboldt, Alexander Von. Researches Concerning the Institutions and Monuments
of the Ancient Inhabitants of America. London: 1814.

__— and Aimé Bonpland. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial
Regions of the New Continent during the Years 1799-1 804. Translated by
Helen Maria Williams. London: 1814-1829.

Hume, R. E. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. London: 1934.

Humphreys, Christmas. Buddhism. London: 1951.

Hurvitz, Leon (tr.). Wei Shou: Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism. Kyoh: 1956.

Hu Shih. The Chinese Renaissance. New York: 1965.

Hutchinson, J. B., R. A. Silow, and S. G. Stephens. The Evolution of Gossypium.
London: 1947.

Hutchinson, Sir Joseph. “The History and Relationship of the World’s Cottons.”
Endeavour, XXI (1962).

Hutchinson, Lester. European Freebooters in Mughal India. Bombay: 1964.

Hutton; J. H. Caste in India. Cambridge: 1946.

Huxley, Aldous. The Perennial Philosophy. London: 1946.

Ikram, S. M. Muslim Civilization in India, New York and London: 1964.

Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Indian Shidis Abroad. Bombay: 1964.

Indica: The Indian Historical Research Institute Silver Jubilee Commemoration
Volume. Bombay: 1954.

Inge, W. R. Mysticism in Religion. London: 1947.

——.. The Platonic Tradition in English Religious Thought. London: 1926.

——., L. P. Jacks, M. Hiriyama, and D. T. Raju (eds.). Radhakrishnan:
Comparative Studies in Philosophy- New York: 1951.

International Congress of Americanists. The Civilization of Ancient America.
Chicago: 1951.

Irani, D. J. Gathas. London: 1924.

Isherwood, Christopher. Ramakrishna and

— (ed.), Vedanta for Modern Man. London: 1952.

= Vedanta for the Westen World. London: 1948. ; :

T-tsing. A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay

Archipelago. Translated by J. Takakausu. Cirat 1896.
lyengar, K. R. Srinivasa. Indian Writing in English. New York: 1962.
Tyer, Raghavan (ed.). South Asian Affairs. No. L London: 1960.

869

His Disciples. London: 1965.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Jacobs, Hans. Western Psychotherapy and Hindu Sadhana. London: 1961.

Jaffar, S. M. Some Cultural Aspects of Muslim Rule in India. Peshawar: 1939,

Jairazbhoy, R. A. Foreign Influences in Ancient India. London: 1963.

Jameson, R. D. Three Lectures on Chinese Folklore. Peiping: 1932.

Janse, Olov R. T. Archaeological Research in Indo-China. Vols. I and II.
Cambridge, Mass.: 1947.

Japanese National Commission for UNESCO. Theatre in Japan. Japan: 1963.

Jeans, Sir James. The Mysterious Universe. Cambridge: 1948.

The Jewish Encyclopedia. 12 vols. London: 1901-1906.

Johnson, A. H. Whitehead’s Philosophy of Civilization. Boston: 1950.

Johnson, F. Hitopadesa. Revised by L. Barnett. London: 1928.

Johnston, E. H. Early Samkhya; An Essay on Historical Development. London:
1937.

Johnston, R. F. Buddhist China. London: 1913.

Jolly, Julius. Indian Medicine. Translated by C. G. Kashikar. Poona: 1951.

Jones, A. M. Africa and Indonesia. Leiden: 1964.

Jones, H. L. (tr.). The Geography of Strabo. 8 vols. London: 1917-1954.

Jones, Sir William, and Willard N. Augustus. Music of India. 2nd rev. ed.;
Calcutta: 1962. First published 1793.

Joseph, John. The Nestorians and Their Muslim Neighbours. Princeton: 1961.

Journal of the American Oriental Society.

Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Old series. 3 vols., Edinburgh: 1888-1892.
New series, 9 vols., Liverpool: 1907-1916. Third series, Edinburgh: 1922
to date.

Taza g eea Studies. London.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kamath, M. A. Hinduism and i Science, Bangalore: 1947. (Foreword by Kunhan
Raja.) À

Kane, Pandurang Vaman. History of Dharmasastra. 5 vols. Poona: 1930-1962.

Kanga, D. D. Where Theosophy and Science Meet. 2 vols. Adyar: 1938-1939.

Kañgle, R. P. (ed.). The Kantilya-Arthasastra. Parts I and 2. Bombay: 1960-
1963.

Karambelkar, V. W. The Athar-veda and the Ayur-veda. Nagpur: 1961.

Karlgren, Bernard. The Chinese Language, an Essay on its Nature and History.
New York: 1949.

(tr.). Shih Ching: The Book of Odes. Stockholm: 1950.

Kato, Genchi. A Study of Shinto. Tokyo: 1926.

Kaul, Gwasha Lal. Kashmir Through the Ages: 5000 B.C. to 1960 a.D. Srinagar:
1960.

Kaye, G. R. Indian Mathematics. Calcutta and Simla: 1915.

Keay, Frank E. 4 History of Hindi Literature. 3rd ed.; Calcutta: 1920.

Keith, A. B. 4 History of Sanskrit Literature. Oxford: 1928.

~ Indian Logic and Atomism. Oxford: 1921.

~. Sanskrit Drama. Oxford: 1924.

Kern, H. (ed.). The Jataka-Mala, by Arya Sura. Cambridge, Mass.: 1914.

Kessel, Joseph. Afghanistan. Translated from the French by Bernadette Folliot.
London: 1959.

Kielhorn, F. (ed.). Mahabhashya (by Pasafjab). 3 vols. Bombay: 1892-1909.

Kimura, Ryokan. 4 Historical Study of the Terms Hinayalla and Mahayana and

the Origin of Mahayana Buddhism. Calcutta: 1927.
ng, C. T. The Gnostics and Their Remains. London: 1864.

- Martin Luther, Why We Can't Wait. London: 1964.

ng, Winston L. Buddhism and Christianity. London: 1963.

n H. D. F. The Greeks. London: 1960:

ight, Richard Payne. The Symbological Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.

New York: 1892.

ochanowski, Jan. Gypsy Studies. Parts 1 and 2. New Delhi: 1963.

Sebner, R., and H. D. Schmidt. Imperialism. Cambridge: 1964.

ndapi, C, Indians Overseas (1838-1949) New Delhi: 1951. a

Sambi, D, D. The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline,
London: 1965.

871

CT CENE

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

. An Introduction to the Study of Indian History. Bombay: 1956,

Kraemer, Hendrik, World Cultures and World Religions. London: 1960.

Kripalani, Krishna. Rabindranath Tagore. London: 1962.

Krishna, Isvara. Sank/zya Karika: A Commentary of Gaurcpada. Translated by H,
T. Colebrooke and H. H. Wilson. Bombay: 1924.

Kroeber, A. L. Anthropology. London: 1924.

. The History of Philippine Civilization as Reflected in Religious Nomenclature.

New York: 1923.

. Peoples of the Philippines. New York: 1928.

. Peruvian Archaeology. New York: 1954.

et al. Anthropology Today. Chicago: 1953.

Krom, N. J. Hindoe-Javaansche Geschiedenis. (Hindu-Javanese History.)
S’Gravenbadge: 1931.

Lach, Donald F. Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. I, Books 1 and 2. Chicago:
1964.

La Fontaine, Jean de. The Fables. Translated by Walter Thornbury. London,
Paris and New York: 1867-1870.

La Fontaine, Jean de. Fables Choisies Mises En Vers. Paris: 1962.

Lahovary, N. Dravidian Origins and the West. Bombay: 1963.

Lal, Chaman. Gypsies. Delhi: 1962.

. Hindu America. Bombay, 1960.

. India and Japan: Friends of Fourteen Centuries. Hoshiarpur: 1959.

La Motte, Etienne. Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien. Louvain: 1958.

Landau, Rom. Islam and the Arabs. London: 1958.

Landon, Kenneth Perry. South East Asia, Crossroad of Religions. Chicago:

usand and One Nights. London: 1839-1841.
Myth. London: 1910. First published 1884.
Jabvar. London: 1957.

and Migra ions of the Polynesian Nations. 2nd ed.;

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Law, B. C. The Historical Geography of Ancient India. Paris: 1954.

Law, N. N. Promotion of Learning in India During Muhammadan Rule. London:
1916.

Lecky, W. E. H. A History of European Morals. 2 vols. London: 1869.

Lee, Samuel. The Travels of Ibn Batuta. London: 1829.

Leeming, Joseph. Yoga and the Bible. London: 1963.

Leeuwen Arend Th. van. Christianity and World History. Edinburgh: 1964.

Legge, J. The Chinese Classics. 5 vols. Oxford and London: 1871-1895.

——(tr.). A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. Oxford: 1886. (An account of
Fa-hien’s travels in India.)

. Travels of Fa-hien. Oxford: 1886.

Legouis, Emile. 4 Short History of English Literature. Oxford: 1934.

Leland, C. G. The English Gypsies and Their Language. London: 1873.

. The Gypsies. Boston: 1924. First published 1882.

——.. Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling. London: 1891.

Le May, Reginald. Buddhist Art in Siam. Tokyo: 1963. First published
Cambridge: 1938.

— The Culture of South-East Asia. London: 1956.

Leon-Portilla, Miguel (ed.). The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest
of Mexico. Boston: 1962.

Le Strange, Guy. Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic
and Persian Sources. Oxford: 1924.

——. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate; Mesopotamia, Persia and
Cambridge: 1905.

Leur, J. C. van. Indonesian Trade and Society. 2nd ed.; Sumu

Lévi, S. Le Nepal. 2 vols. Paris: 1905-1908.

Levy Reube ; ah by Ferd
3 n (tr.). The Epic of. Kings. Shahnama by i
Lewis, A. R. Naval Power and Trade in the Mediterranean (500-1100). Princeton:

1951.
Lewis, Be in Hi don: 1962. -
» Bernard. The Arabs in History. London: ee
ewis, H. Spencer. The Mystical Life of Jesus. 15th ed.; California: 1962. First
__ Published 1929.

ibby, Willard F. Radio Carbon Dating. Chicago: 1965.
ndon: 1909.

New York: 1950.

Central Asia.
r Bandung: 1960.

owsi. Chicago: 1967.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Liu, Wu-chi. Introduction to Chinese Literature. London: 1966.
Livingstone, R. W. (ed.). The Legacy of Greece. Oxford: 1921. |
Lloyd-Jones, H. (ed.). The Greeks. London: 1962. |
Loeb, Edwin M. and Robert Heine-Geldern. Sumatra. Vienna: 1935.

Loenen, J. H. M. M. Parmenides, Melissus, Gorgias. Asen, Netherlands: 1959,
Lombard, F. A. An Outline History of the Japanese Drama. London: 1928.

Lovejoy, Arthur O. The Great Chain of Being. Cambridge, Mass.: 1953.

Lowie, Robert. The History of Ethnological Theory. London: 1937.

. “Some Problems of Geographical Distribution.” Sudseestudien, pp.
11-26. Basel: 1951.

Macaulay, Thomas Babington. Critical and Historical Essays. 2 vols. London:
1951.

Macauliffe, M. A. The Sikh Religion. 6 vols, Oxford: 1909. |

McCrindle, J. W. Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian. Calcutta:
1960. First published London: 1901.

(tr.), and S. N. Majundar (cd.). Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy.
Calcutta: 1927.

MacCulloch, J. A. The Childhood of Fiction. London: 1905.

Macdonald, J. Ramsay. The Awakening of India. London: 1910. |

Macdonell, A. A. and A. B. Keith. Vedic Index of Names and Subjects. London: |
1912.

Macdonell, Arthur A. 4 History of Sanskrit Literature. London: 1905.

. India’s Past. Oxford: 1927.

. Vedic Mythology. Strasbourg: 1897.

Macdowell, Edward. Critical and Historical Essays. Boston: 1912.

McEwan, C. W. The Oriental Origin of Hellenistic Kingship. Chicago: 1939. |

MacGowan, Kenneth. Early Man in the New World. New York: 1950.

Mackay, E. J. H. Further Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro, Delhi: 1938.

MacKenzie, Donald A. Myths of Pre-Columbian America. London: 1923.

Mckenzie, J. Hindu Ethics. London: 1922.

McNickle, D'Arcy. They Came Here First. Philadelphia: 1949.

Macnicol, N. (ed.). Hindu Scriptures. London: 1938.

—. The Making of Modern India. London: 1934. -

_ Matic, J. N. Myths and Legends of India. Edinburgh: 1929.
$ Mahmud, Syed. Hindu Muslim Cultural Accord. Bombay: 1949.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Maitra, Susila Kumara. The Ethics of the Hindus. Calcutta: 1958.
Majumdar, R. C. Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia. Baroda:
“1963.

— (ed.). The Classical Accounts of India. Calcutta: 1960.

—. Hindu Colonies in the Far East. Calcutta: 1963.

and A. D. Pusalker (eds.). History and Culture of the Indian People. Vols.
I-VI. London: 1951.

Malalasekera, G. P. The Pali Literature of Ceylon. London: 1928.

Mangelsdorf, Paul C. “Ancester of Corn.” Science, CXXVIII, No. 3335 (28
November 1958).

Mansel, H. L. The Gnostic Heresies of the First and Second Centuries. London:
1875.

Markham, C. R. The Incas of Peru. London: 1910.

Marlow, A. N. Radhakrishnan. London: 1962.

Marshall. John H. Guide to Taxila. 4th ed.; London: 1960. First published
Calcutta: 1918.

Marshall, John, and Alfred Foucher. The Monument of Sdtichi. Calcutta: 1947.

Marlin, P. S. Indians Before Columbus. Chicago: 1947.

Mason, John Alden. The Ancient Civilizations of Peru. London: 1957.

Maspero, Henri. Le Chine Antique. Paris: 1955.

Mattingly, Harold. Roman Imperial Civilization. London: 1959.

Maude, Aylmer. The Life of Tolstoy. London: 1953. First published 1908-
1910.

Maximoff, Matéo. Savina. Paris: 1956.

Mayer, J. P. Political Thought. The European Tradition. London: 1939.

Means, P. A. Ancient Civilizations of the Andes. New York: 1931.

Meester, Maria E. de. Oriental Influences in the English Literature of the Nineteenth
Century, Heidelberg: 1915. 3

Mehta, Dharam Dev. Some Positive Sciences in the Vedas. New Delhi: 1959.

Mendis, G. C. Early History of Ceylon. Calcutta: 1940.

Menon, V. K. The Development of W. B. Yeats. Edinburgh: 1960.

Menon, V. Laxmi. Ruskin and Gandhi. Varanasi: 1965.
Merrill, Elmer Drew. “The Botany of Cook’s Voyages, and Its Unexpected
Significance in Relation to Anthropology, Biogeography and History.”

384.
Chronica Bontanica, XIV (1954); ee ;
Metraux oe @ eee Crouzet (eds.). The Evolution of Science. New

York: 1963.

875

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Miller, Robert James. Monasteries and Culture Change in Inner Mongolia,
Wiesbaden: 1960.

Miller, William Robert. Non-Violence. A Christian Interpretation. London:
1964.

Ming, Lai. A History of Chinese Literature. London: 1964.

Mirza, M. W. The Life and Works of Amir Khusrau. Lahore: 1935.

Mitra, Sisirkumar. Resurgent India. Bombay: 1963.

Mizuno, Seiichi. Chinese Stone Sculpture. Tokyo: 1950.

Mode, Heinz. The Harappa Culture and the West. Calcutta: 1961.

Momigliano, Arnaldo (ed.). The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity.
Oxford: 1963.

Monier-Williams, M. Hinduism. Calcutta: 1951.

. Indian Wisdom. 3rd ed.; London: 1876.

. Sakuntala by Kalidasa. 2nd ed.; Oxford: 1876.

. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Oxford: 1872, 1899.

Mookerji, R. K. Indian Shipping and Maritime Activity. London: 1910.

Moore, Charles A. (ed.). Essays in East-West Philosophy. Hawaii: 1951.

Moorhead, J. H., and S. Radhakrishnan (eds.). Contemporary Indian Philosophy.
Rev. ed.; London: 1952.

Moraes, George. A History of Christianity in India. Vol. I. Bombay: 1964.

Morgan, Kenneth W. (ed.). Islam: the Straight Path. New York: 1958.

(ed.). The Path of the Buddha. New York: 1956.

Morley, S. G. The Cozelti of Maya and Christian Chronology. Washington:
ORE

— . Guide Book to the Ruins of Quirigua. Washington: 1935.

] o Now Voss 1959.

Ar of India. London: 1959.
n China and the Far East. ee

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_——. History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. Varanasi: 1964. First published
London: 1859.
—— India, what can it teach us. London: 1883.
—— . Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion. London: 1891. Fi irst
published 1878.

— Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings. London: 1898.

——. Ram Mohan to Ramakrishna. Calcutta: 1952.

(ed.). Sacred Books of the East. 50 vols. Oxford: 1879-1910.

Vedic Hymns, by F. Max Müller and H. Oldenberg (2 vols.).

Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, by M. Bloomfield (1 vol.).

The Satapatha-Brahmana, by J. Eggeling (5 vols.).

The Grihya Sutras, by H. Oldenberg (2 vols.).

The Upanishads, by F. Max Müller (2 vols.).

The Bhagavad gita, by K. Trimbak Telang (1 vol.).

The Vedanta Sutras, by G. Thibut (3 vols.).

The Sacred Laws of the Aryas, by G. Bühler (2 vols.).

The Institutes of Vishnu, by J. Jolly (1 vol.).

The Minor Law Books, by J. Jolly (1 vol.).

Manu, by G. Bühler (1 vol.).

The Gaina-Sutras, by H. Jacobi (1 vol.).

The Saddharma-pundarika, by H. Kern (1 vol.).

Mahayana Texts, by E. B. Cowell, F. Max Müller, and J. Takakusu (1
vol.),

The Dhammapada and Sutta-Nipata, by F. Max Miller and V. Fausboll
(1 vol.).

Buddhist Suttas, by T. W. Rhys Davids (1 vol.)

Vinaya Texts, by T. W. Rhys Davids and H. Oldenberg (3 vols.).

The Questions of King Milinda, by T. W. Rhys Davids (Ee :

The F; o-sho-hing-tsan-king, from the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit,
by S. Beal (1 vol.).

The Zend-Avesta, by J. Darmesteter and L. H. Mills (3 vols.).

Pahlavi Texts, by E. W. West (5 vols.).

The Quran, by E. H. Palmer (2 vols.).

Texts of Confucianism, by J. Legge (4 vols.).

Texts of Taoism, by J. Legge (2 vols.). Eee (1 vol.)

Analytical Index of Names and Subjects, by M. Winternitz as

es

877

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

—. On Sanskrit Texts Discovered in Japan. London: 1880.

. The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy. London: 1899.
Murdoch, James. History of Japan. 3 vols. London: 1926.

Murray, Gilbert. Five Stages of Greek Religion. London: 1946.

. Hellenism and the Modern World. London: 1953.

Murray, H. J. R. A History of Chess. Oxford: 1913.

. A History of Board-Games other than Chess. Oxford: 1952.
Murray, M. A. The Splendour That Was Egypt. London: 1954.
Murti, T. R. V. The Central Philosophy of Buddhism. London: 1955.
Muzumdar, A. M. Social Welfare in India. Bombay: 1964.
Mylonas, George E. Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Princeton: 1961.

Nag, Kilidas. Discovery of Asia. Calcutta: 1958.

. Greater India. Calcutta: 1960.

. India and the Middle East. Calcutta: 1954.

Nagarajan, S. “Amold and the Bhagavad Gita: A Reinterpretation of ‘Empedocles
on Etna.” Comparative Literature, XII (Fall 1960),335-347.

Nakamura, Hajime. Japan and Indian Asia. Calcutta: 1961.

. The Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples. Rev. ed.; Honolulu: 1964.

Nanda, B. R. Mahatma Gandhi. Boston: 1958.

Narain, A. K. The Indo-Greeks. Oxford: 1957.

Naravane, V. S. Modern Indian Thought. Bombay: 1964.

Natarajan, S. 4 Century of Social Reform in India. London: 1959.

Natwar, Singh K. (ed.). E. M. Forster. A Tribute. New York: 1964.

Needham, J. (ed.). Science, Religion and Reality. London: 1926.

À seph. Science and Civilization in Ghina. Vois. Je IV. Cambridge:

eDi ey of nda New York: 1946.

1963.
Ee London: >

lee, India and the World. New Delhi:

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Neugebauer, O. The Exact Sciences in Antiquity, 2nd ed.; Providence, R. I.:
1957.

New Oxford. History of Music. Edited by D. A. Hughes and G. Abraham.
Oxford: 1960.

Nicholson, R. A. 4 Literary History of the Arabs. London: 1898.

—. The Mystics of Islam. London: 1914.

—— (tr.). Rumi, Poet and Mystic. London: 1950.

——. Studies of Islamic Mysticism. London: 1921.

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Faith and History. London: 1949,

Nikhilananda, Swami. The Bhagavad Gita. New York: 1944.

(tr.). The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Madras: 1964.

. Upanishads. New York: 1949.

Nilsson, M. P. Greek Piety. Oxford: 1948.

Nivisin, D. S., and A. F. Wright (ed.). Confucianism. in Action. Stanford:
1959.

Nizami, K. A. Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India During the Thirteenth
Century. Aligarh: 1961.

=~ Studies in Medieval Indian History and Culture. Allahabad: 1966.

Nobel, Johannes. Central Asia: The Connecting Link Between East and West.
Nagpur: 1952.

Nock, A. D. Early Gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background. New York:
1964. First published 1928.

Nordenskjold, N. E. H. Origin of the Indian Civilization in South America.
Gothenburg: 1931.

Norman, Dorothy (ed.). Nehru: the First Sixty Years. 2 vols, London: 1965.

eee The Voyage of Bran. 2 vols. London: 1895.

» Lelia. The Island of Sacrifice. Lancaster: 1910.
Yanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary, Colombo: 1950.

ae G. H. Bhar, atiya Prachina Lipi-male. Ajmer: 1918. Re
Yenberg Hermann. Buddha; His Life, His Doctrine, His Order. Translated by

OL uo Hoey. London and Edinburgh: 1882. _
ape Lacy. How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs. Lon
oad A.T. History of the Persian Empire. Chicago: e a
oo L. S. S. (ed.). Modern India and the West. Topipi r =
Ot I ©. The Brahmans, Theists and Muslims of India. Lone : 190
aliq Neerlandica. Leiden: 1948. es

don: 1957.

879

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Osborne, Arthur. Buddhism and Christianity in the Light of Hinduism, London:
1959.

Otto, Rudolf. The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man. London: 1951.

Owen, Sidney J. India on the Eve of the British Conquest. Calcutta: 1954. First
published London: 1872.

Pali Texts Society Translation Series. 13 vols. London: 1909-1925.
I. Psalms of the Early Buddhists. Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids. 1909.
Il. A Compendium of Philosophy. Translated, with introductory essay and
notes, by Shwe Zan Aung and Mrs. Rhys Davids. 1910.

Ill. The Mahavamsa or Great Chronicle of Ceylon. Translated by W. Geiger,
assisted by M. Hayes-Bodes. 1912.

IV. Psalms of the Early Buddhists. Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids. 1913.

V. Points of Controversy or Subjects of Discourse. Translation of the Katha-
Vatthu from the Adhidhamma-Pitaka by Shwe Zan Aung and Mrs.
Rhys Davids. 1916.

VI. Manual of a Mystic. Translation from the Pali and Sinhalese work
entitled the Yogavachara’s Manual by F. L. Woodword. Edited, with
introductory essay, by Mrs. Rhys Davids. 1917.

VII. The Book of the Kindred Sayings (Sanyutta-Nikaya) or Grouped Sutias.
Part I. Kindred Sayings with Verses (Sagatha- Vagga). Translated by Mrs.
Rhys Davids. 1917.
VII-IX. The Expositor (Atthasalini): Buddhaghosa’s Commentary on the
Dhammasangani, the First Book of the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Translated
by Maung Tin, edited and revised by Mrs. Rhys Davids. Vol. I, 1920.
Vol. II, 1921.
X. The Book of the Kindred Sayings (. Sanyutta-Nikaya) or Grouped Suttas.
Part Il. The Nidana Book (Nidana-Vagga), Translated by Mrs. Rhys
Davids, assisted by F. L. Woodward. 1922.
XI. The Path of Purity. Translation of Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga by
Maung Tin. 1923.

De tion of Human Types (Puggala—Pannaiti). Translated by Bimala
Charan Law. 1924. z

the Kindred Sayings (Sanyutta-Nikaya) or Grouped Sutta-
. Woodward, edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids. 1925-

/estern Dominance, London: 1953.

dations of New India, London: 1963.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

——. The Unknown Christ of Hinduism. London: 1964.

Panini. The Ashtadhyayi of Panini. Edited and translated by S. C. Vasu. 2 vols.
Delhi: 1962. First published Allahabad: 1891.

Pan Ku. The History of the former Han Dynasty. (The Imperial Annals.) Translated
and edited by Homer H. Dubs. Vols. I and II. Baltimore: 1938, 1955.

Park, No-Yong. Retreat of the West. Boston and New York: 1937.

Parker, E. H. Burma with Special Reference to her Relations with China. Rangoon:
1893.

Parrinder, E. Geoffrey. Comparative Religion. London: 1962.

Parsons, E. A. The Alexandrian Library. London: 1952.

Partridge, Burgo. A History of Orgies. London: 1964.

Patterson, L. Mithraism. and Christianity. Cambridge: 1921.

Payne, G. H. (ed.). Akbar and the Jesuits. London: 1926.

Pennell, Elizabeth Robins. Charles Godfrey Leland, A Biography. London:
1906.

Perry, Ben E. Studies in the Text History of the Life and Fables of Aesop. Haverford:
1961.

Petech, L. Medieval History of Nepal. Rowe: 1958.

—— (ed.). Northern India According to the Shui Ching Chu. Rome. 1950.

Peterson, Peter (ed.). Hitopadesa by Narayana. Bombay: 1887.

Philips, C. H. (ed.). Handbook of Oriental History. London: 1951.

~ (ed.). Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon. London. 1961.

Philostratus. The Life of Appollonius of Tyana. Translated by F. C. Conybeare,
London: 1912.

Piggott, Stuart. Prehistoric India. London: 1961.

Pirenne, Jacques. The Tides of History. Vols. I and I. London: 1962.

Pischel, Richard (ed.). Kalidasa’s Sakuntala. 2nd ed.; Cambridge, Mass.: 1922.

Plamenatz, John. On Alien Rule and Self-Government. London: 1960.

Plowman, Max (ed.). Poems and Prophecies. London: 1959.

Pococke, E. (ed.). India in Greece. London: 1852.

Poindexter, M. The Ayar—Tunas. 2 vols. New York: 1930.

Polo, Marco. The Travels of Marco Polo. London: 1926. (Introduction by John

> Masefield.)

Ope, G. U. The Sacred Kurral. London: 1886.

Pople, H. A. The Music of India. Calcutta: 1950. First published 1921.

Post, L. A. and E. H. Warmington (ed.). The Leob Classical Library Latin and
Greek Volumes. Cambridge, Mass and London: 1964.

881

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Pothan, S. G. The Syrian Christians of Kuala. Bombay: 1963.

Pound, Ezra (tr.). Confucian Analects. London: 1956.

Prakash, Buddha. India and the World. Hoshiarpur: 1964.

Prakash, Satya. Founders of Sciences in Ancient India. New Delhi: 1965.

Prasad, Beni. The Hindu-Muslim. Question. Allahabad: 1961.

. History of Jahangir, London: 1922.

Prasad, Isvari. History of Medieval India. Allahabad: 1925.

Prasad, Rajendra. India Divided. 3rd rev. ed.; Bombay: 1947.

Prescott. W. H. The Conquest of Mexico. 2 vols. London: 1913. First published
in 3 volumes in 1843.

. The Conquest of Peru. 2 vols. London: 1847.

Press, John (ed.). Commonwealth Literature. London: 1965.

Priaulx, Osmund de Beauvoir. The Indian Travels of Appollonius of Tyana and the
Indian Embassies to Rome. London: 1873.

Price, A. F. (tr.). Zhe Diamond Sutra. London: 1955.

Prinsep, James. Essays on Indian Antiquities. London: 1858.

Prip-moller, J. Chinese Buddhist Monasteries. Copenhagen: 1937.

Pritchard, James B. (ed.). The Ancient Near East. Princeton: 1950.

Przyluski, J. Légende de !’Empereur Asoka. Paris: 1923.

. (Tr. into English by D. K. Biswas). The Legend of Emperor Asoka.
Calcutta: 1967.

Rackham, H., and N. H. S. Jones (trs.). Natural History (Plinus Secundus), 11
vols. London: 1945.

Radhakrishnan, S. The Bhagavad Gita. New York: 1948.

. The Dhammapada. London: 1950.

——. Eastern Religions and Western Thought. Oxford: 1939.
—. Hindu View of Life. London: 1927.

—(ed.). History of Philosophy, Eastern and Western. 2 vols. London: 1952.

and China. 3rd ed.; Bombay: 1954.

í
i

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Raghavan, M. D. India in Ceylonese History, Society and Culture, New Delhi:
1964.

Raghavan, V. The Indian Heritage. Bangalore: 1956.

——. Prayers, Praises and Psalms. Madras: 1938.

—— . Sanskrit and Allied Indological Studies in Europe. Madras: 1956.

Raghu Vira (ed.). Ramayana. Lahore: 1938.

Raghu Vira and Lokeschandra. Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts. New Delhi: 1959.

Rahula, Walpola. History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Colombo: 1956.

Ralston, W. R. S. Russian Folk-Tales. London: 1873.

Ramachandra Rao, S. K. Development of Psychological Thought in India. Mysore:
1962.

Randhawa, M. S. Kangra Valley Painting. Bombay: 1964.

Rao, M. V. Ramana. A Short History of the Indian National Congress. Delhi:
1959.

Rao, R. P. Portuguese Rule in Goa 1510-1961. Bombay: 1963.

Rapson, E. J. Ancient India. Cambridge: 1914.

Rau, G. Subba. Indian Words in English. Oxford: 1954.

Rawlinson, H. G. India: A Short Cultural History. Rev. ed.; London: 1952.

. Indian Historical Studies. London: 1913.

— Intercourse between India and the Western World. 2nd ed.; Cambridge:
1926.

Ray, H. C. History of Ceylon. Vol. 1. Colombo: 1957.

Ray, Nihar Ranjan. Introduction to the Study of Theravada: Theravada Buddhism
in Burma. Calcutta: 1946.

Ray, P. (ed.). History of Chemistry in Ancient and Medieval India. Calcutta:
1956.

Ray, Sunil Chandra. Early History and Culture of Kashmir. Calcutta: 1957.

Raychaudhuri, Hemachandra. Political History of Ancient India. Calcutta:
1953.

—. Studies in India Antiquities. Calcutta: 1958.

Maychaudhuri, Tapan. Con ae to Indian Economic History. Vol. I. Calcutta:

960.
Reed, Howard S. A Short History of the Plant Science: Waltham,

Regmi D. R è
Smi, D. R. Ancient Nepal. Calcutta: 1961. ;
Reichelt, Karl Ludwig. Religion in Chinese Garment. New York: 1951.

: i1927.
om Truth and Traditions in Chinese Buddhism. gee
sischauer, A, R. Seudies in Japanese Buddhism New York 12°C
883 ; .

Mass.: 1942.

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Reischauer, Edwin O. Ennin’s Travels in Tang China. New York: 1955.

. Japan: Past and Present. 2nd ed.; Tokyo: 1962.

Renou, Louis. Religions of Ancient India. London: 1953.

. Vedic India. Translated by Philip Spratt. Calcutta: 1957.

Rhys, Ernest (Intro.). Aesop’s Fables (and others). New York: 1913.

Ridley, Michael. The Seal of Aetea and the Minoan Scripts. Calcutta: 1963.

Riepe, Dale. The Naturalistic Tradition in Indian ‘Thought. Seattle: 1961.

Ritchie, D. G. Plato. Edinburgh: 1902.

Rizvi, Saiyid Athar Abbas. Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Agra: 1965.

and Lal Bhargava Moti. Freedom Struggle in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow:
1962.

Roberts, Samuel. The Gypsies. London: 1836.

Robertson, William. An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which
the Ancients Had of India. London: 1791.

Robinson, John A. T. Honest to God. London: 1963.

Rogers, Millard B. “An Archeological Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.”
Science, CXXXI, No. 3408 (22 April 1960).

Rolland, Romain. The Life of Ramakrishna. Translated by E. F. Malcolm-Smith.
6th ed.; Calcutta: 1960.

. Prophets of the New India. Translated by E. F. Malcolm-Smith. New
York: 1930.

Rosen, F. The Algebra of Mohammed ben Musa. London: 1831.

Rosenthal, Ethel. The Story of Indian Music and its Instruments. London: 1929.

Ross, Floyd H. The Meaning of Life in Hinduism and Buddhism. London:
1952.

Rostovtzeff, M. Caravan Cities. Oxford: 1932.

. History of the Ancient World. Vols. I and Il. Oxford: 1926.

. Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire. Oxford: 1926.

Roth, Cecil. The Historical Background of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford: 1958.

—. The Jewish Contribution to Civilization. Oxford: 1943.

—. A Short History of the Jewish People. London: 1936.

Rowe, J. Howland. Inca Culture at the Time of Spanish Conquest. Washington:
1946.

Rowland, Benjamin. The Wall Paintings of India, Central Asia and Ceylon. Boston:
1938. eh es :

LN. The Philippines and India, Manila: 1930.
cape R84

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Royle, J. F. Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine. London: 1887.
. The Arts and Manufactures of India. London: 1852.
. An Essay on the Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine. London: 1837.

Rustum, A. J. and C. K. Zurayk (eds.). History of the Arabs and Arabic Culture.
Beirut: 1940.

Ryder, A. W. The Little Clay Cart. Cambridge, Mass.: 1905.
. (tr.). The Panchatantra. Chicago: 1925.

Sachs, Curt. The Rise of Music in the Ancient World. London: 1944.

Sakasena, Rama Babu. A History of Urdu Literature. Allahabad: 1927.

Sale, George (tr.). The Koran. London and New York: 1888.

Saleeby, Najeeb M. The Origins of Malayan Filipinos. Manila: 1911.

Saletore, B. A. Ancient Indian Political Thought and Institutions. London: 1963.

. India’s Diplomatic Relations with the West. Bombay: 1958.

Salmony, A. Sculpture in Siam, London: 1925.

Sambamoorthy, P. History of Indian Music. Madras: 1960.

. South Indian Music. 3rd ed.; Madras: 1933.

Sampson, John. The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford: 1926.

Samuel, Viscount, and Herbert Dingle. A Threefold Cord. London: 1961.

Sanderson, Gorham D. India and British Imperialism. New York: 1951.

Sankalia, H. D. Indian Archaeology Today. Bombay: 1962.

. Prehistory and Protohistory in India and Pakistan. Bombay: 1963.

——.. he University of Nalanda. Madras: 1934.

Sankarananda, Swami. Hindu States of Sumeria. Calcutta: 1962.

Sansom, Sir George. Japan: A Short Cultural History. Rev. ed.; New York:
1943.

Saraswati, S. K. 4 Survey of Indian Sculpture. Calcutta: 1957.

Sarkar, Benoy K. Hindu Achievements in Exact Science. London: 1918.

Sarkar, H. B. Indian Influences on the Literature of Java and Bali. Calcutta:
1934.

Sarkar, Sasanka S. Ancient Races of Baluchistan, Panjab and Sind. Calcutta:
1964.

Sarma, D. S. The Renaissance of Hinduism. Banaras: 1944.

—. What is Hinduism? Madras: 1945.

Sarton, George. A History of Science. Vols I and II. Cambridge, Mass.: 1959.

~. The History of Science and New Humanism. New York: 1931.

885

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

_ Introduction to the History of Science. Vols. I-III. Baltimore: 1953. First

published Washington: 1927.

. The Life of Science. New York: 1948.

Sarup, L. The Nighantu and the Nirukta. London: 1920.

Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta (ed.). Age of the Nandas and Mauryas. Banaras: 1952.

. (ed.). A Comprehensive History of India. Vol. 11. Bombay: 1957.

——. History of Sri Vijaya. Madras: 1949.

. South Indian Influences in the Far East. Bombay: 1949.

Sastri, Subrahmanya, and R. Bhat (trs. and eds.). Brihak-Sambita (by Varaha-
mihira). 2 vols. Banglore: 1947.

Satomi, Kishio. Japanese Civilization, London: 1923.

Sauer, J. D. “The Grain Amaranths: A Survey of their History and Classification.”
Annals Missouri Botan. Garden., XXXVII (1950), 561-632.

Saunders, E. Dale. Buddhism in Japan (with an outline of its origins in India).
Philadelphia: 1964.

Saunders, J. H. The Wild Species of Gossypium and their Evolutionary History.
London: 1961.

Saunders, J. J. Æ History of Medieval Islam. London: 1965.

Schilling, Harold K. Science and Religion. New York: 1962.

Schilpp, Paul Arthur (ed.). The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. New
York: 1952.

Schlegel, Frederick. Lectures on the History of Literature Ancient and Modern.
London: 1818.

. Uber die Sprache und Weisheit der Inder. Heidelberg: 1808.

Schopenhauer, Arthur. The World as Will and Idea. Translated and edited by R.
B. Haldane and J. Kemp. 3 vols. London: 1883.

Schrödinger, Erwin. Nature and the Greeks. Cambridge: 1954.

Schwab, Raymond. La Renaissance Orientale. Paris: 1950.

Schweitzer, Albert. The Quest for the Historical Jesus. London: 1910.

Seckel, Dietrich. The Art of Buddhism. London: 1964.

Séjourné, Laurette. Burning Water. Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico. New
York: 1956. -

~ Selincourt, Aubrey de (tr.). Arrian’s Life of Alexander the Great. London: 1962.

otus, » the Histories. London: 1954.
fat L). Indian Travels of Ticar and Cira New Delhi:

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sewell, Robert. 4 Forgotten Empire. London: 1900.

Shah, C. L. J. Jainism in Northern India. London: 1932.

Sharif, M. M. (ed.). 4 History of Muslim Philosophy. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: 1963
and 1966.

Sharma, Bishan Sarup. Gandhi As A Political Thinker. Allahabad: 1956.

Sharma, Chandraddhar, 4 Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. London: 1960.

Sharma, Dashratha, Early Chauhan Dynasties. Delhi: 1959.

Sharma, S. R. The Crescent in India. Bombay: 1937.

Sharp, Andrew. Ancient Voyagers in the Pacific. Wellington: 1956.

. Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia. Auckland and Hamilton: 1963.

Shastri, D. A Short History of Indian Materialism and Hedonism. Calcutta:
1930.

Sherrard, Philip. The Pursuit of Greece. London: 1964.

Shinn, Roger L. Christianity and the Problem of History. New York: 1933.

Shorey, Paul. Platonism Ancient and Modern. California: 1938.

Shoso-In Gyobotsu Zuroku. Pictures of the Imperial properties in the Shoso-in,
Nara. 18 vols. Tokyo: 1951.

Shukla, P. N. Vastu-Sastra: Vol. I. Hindu Science of Architecture. Lucknow:
1960.

. Vastu-Sastra: Vol. II. Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting.
Lucknow: 1960.

Sila, Brajendranath. The Positive Science; of the Ancient Hindus. Delhi: 1958. First
published London: 1915.

Singerist, H. E. 4 History of Medicine. London: 1951.

Singh, A. N., and B. Dutta. The History of Hindu Mathematics. Lahore: 1935.

Singh, Karan. Prophet of Indian Nationalism. London: 1963.

Singh, Rajendra (Brig.). History of Indian Army. New Delhi: 1963.

Singhal, D. P. Nationalism in India and other Historical Essays. Delhi: 1967.

Sircar, D. C. Select Inscriptions bearing on Indian History and Civilization.
Calcutta: 1942.

Siren, O. Chinese Painting. Leading Masters and Principles. 7 vols.
1956.

=. Chinese Sculpture. London: 1925.

~——. A History of Early Chinese Art. 4 vols: London: 1929.

Smith, D, E., and L. C. Karpinski. The Hindu Arabic Numerals.
London: 1911. i

Smith, G. E. Elephants and Ethnologists. New York: 1924.

887

New York:

Boston and

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Smith, Stephenson Percy. Hawaika: The Original Home of the Maori.
Christchurch, New Zealand: 1904.

Smith, Vincent, A. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon. Oxford: 1911,

. A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon. Revised and enlarged by Karl
Khandalwala. 3rd ed.; Bombay.

Smith, Wilfred Cantwell. Islam in Modern History. Princeton: 1957.

. Modern Islam in India. London: 1946.

Society of Antiquarians. Archaeologia, Vol. XCVII. Oxford: 1959.

. Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity. London: 1785.

Somadeva Bhatta. Katha Sarit Sagara. English translation entitled The Ocean of
Story by C. H. Tawney in ten volumes, edited by N. M. Penzcr, London:
1927.

Soothill, W. E. (tr.). Saddbarmapundarika. Oxford: 1930.

. The Three Religions of China. London: 1913.

Sorabji, Kaikhusrau. Around Music. London: 1932.

. Mi Contra Fa. London: 1947.

Soustelle, Jacques. The Daily Life of the Aztecs. Translated by Patrick O'Brian.
London: 1955.

Spargo, J. W. Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.:
1931.

Spence, Lewis. The Myths of Mexico and Peru. London: 1913.

- The Myths of the North American Indians. London: 1914.

Spengler, Oswald. The Decline of the West. Translated by Charles F. Atkinson.
2 vols. New York: 1957.

Spinden, H. J. Ancient Civilizations of Mexico and Central America. New York:
1917.

. Maya Art and Civilization. Colorado: 1957.

. Maya Dates and What They Reveal. Brooklyn: 1930.

Sridharan, L. A Maritime History of India. Delhi: 1965.

Starkie, Walter. Ragg/e-Tagele. London: 1964. First published 1933.

. Scholars and Gypsies. London: 1963.

Stcherbatsky, Th. Central Concepts of Buddhism. London: 1924.

- The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana. Leningrad: 1927.

Steiger, G. N., H. O. Beyer, and C. Benitez. 4 Bistary of the Orient. Boston:
1926.

k Stein, Sir Mark Aurel. Ancient Khotan. 2 vols. Oxford: 1907.
: {sia. Oxford: 1928.

888

BIBLIOGRAPHY

—. Memoirs on Maps of Chinese Turkestan and Kansu. Dehradun: 1923.

—— (tr.). Rejatarangini. London: 1900.

——. Ruins of Desert Cathay. 2 vols. London: 1912.

——. Sand-Buried Ruins of Khotan. London: 1903.

——. Serindia. 5 vols. Oxford: 1921.

. Wall Paintings from Ancient Shrines in Central Asia. Vols. I and Il.
Delhi: 1933.

Steinilber-Oberlin, E. The Buddhist Sects of Japan. London: 1938.

Sternbach, Ludwik. The Hitopadesa and its Sources. New Haven: 1960,

Stevens, Halsey. The Life and Music of Bela Bartok. New York: 1953.

Stevenson, S. The Heart of Jainism. London and New York: 1915.

Steward, Julian H. (ed.). Handbook of Soutk American Indians. Vols. I-VII.
Washington: 1946-1959.

Stobart, J. C. The Glory That Was Greece. 3rd ed.; London: 1960. First published
1911.

Stockley, V. German Literature as Known in England: 1750-1830. London:
1929.

Stokes, Eric. The English Utilitarians and India. Oxford: 1959.

Stonor, C. R., and E. Anderson; “Maize among the Hill Peoples of Assam.”
Annals Missouri Botan. Garden., XXXVI (1949), 355-396.

Stutfield, H. E. M. Mysticism and Catholicism. London: 1925.

Stutterheim, W. F. Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. The Hague: 1956.

Subrahmanya, Aiyyar. The Grammar of South Indian Music. Bombay: 1939.

Sukthankar, V. S., et al. (ed.). Mahabharata. Poona: 1933-1958.

Sutherland, Lucy S. The East India Company in Eighteenth Century Politics.
Oxford: 1952,

Suzuki, Beatrice Lane. Mahayana Buddhism. London: 1948.

Suzuki, D. T. 4 Brief History of Early Chinese Philosophy. London: 1914.

~, Essays in Zen Buddhism. 3 vols. London: 1934-1949.

~. An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. New York: 1949.

~~: Living by Zen. Tokyo: 1949.

=. A Miscellany on/the Shin Teaching of Buddhism. Kyoto: 1949.

~~: Studies in Zen. New York: 1955.

~__—: Zen Buddhism and its Influence on Japanese Culture. Kyoto: 1938.

"> The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind. London: 1949. ;

~ Erich Fromm, and Richard de Martino. Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis.
London: 1960.

889

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Swain, Joseph Ward. The Ancient World. 2 vols. New York: 1950.
Swamikannu, Pillai. An Indian Ephermeris, 7 vols. Madras: 1952. |
Sydow, C. W. V. Selected Papers on Folklore. Copenhagen: 1948.
Symonds, J. A. Studies of the Greek Poets. 3rd ed.; London: 1920. First published

1873.

Tachibana, S. The Ethics of Buddhism. London: 1926.
Tagore, Avanindranath, and Stella Kramrisch. 4. D. Coomaraswamy
Commemoration Volume. Calcutta: 1961.
Tagore, Rabindranath. Drawings and Paintings. Calcutta: 1961.
Takakusu, Junjiro. The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy. Bombay: 1956.
. A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay
Archipelago. Oxford: 1896.
Tam, W. W. Alexander the Great (Narrative). Cambridge: 1948.
. Alexander the Great (Sources and Studies). Cambridge: 1958.
——. The Greeks in Bactria and India. 2nd ed.; Cambridge: -1951.
. Hellenistic Civilization. London: 1927.
Taton, Rene (ed.). History of Science: Vol. I. Ancient and Medieval Science. London:
1963.
(ed.). History of Science: Vol. II. The Beginnings of Modern Science. London:
1964.
Tattwananda, Swami. Ancient Indian Culture at a Glance. Calcutta: 1962.
Taylor, F. Sherwood. Science: Past and Present. London: 1958.
- Taylor, Lily Ross. The Divinity of the Roman Emperor. Middletown, Conn.:
1931.
Taylor, Thomas (tr.). Porphyry on Abstinence from Animal Food. London: 1823.
Tax, Sol, and W. C. Bennet (ed.). The Civilizations of Ancient America. (Selected
papers of the XXIX International Congress of Americanists.) Chicago:
1952. :
Tello, J. Andean Civilizations. Edited by Julian H. Steward. New York: 1930:
Thapar, Romila. Asoka. Oxford: 1961.
s } Early Buddhist Scriptures. London: 1935.
ry of Buddhist Thought. 2nd ed.; New York: 1951.
uddha as I end and History. London: 1949.
7 Empire of India. Ernakulam: 1959.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thompson, John E. S. The Rise and Fall of the Maya Civilization. London:
1956.

Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. New York: 1946.

Thornbury, George Walter. Life in Spain: Past and Present. 2 vols. London:
1859.

Thornton, A. P. The Imperial Idea and its Enemies. London: 1959.

Tilak, B. G. The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas. Bombay:
1893.

Titus, Murray T. Islam in India and Pakistan. Calcutta. 1959. First published
1930.

Tod, James. Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. 2 vols. London: 1829-1832.

Toynbee, Arnold. An Historian’s Approach to Religion. New York: 1956.

. A Study of History. 12 vols. London: 1934-1959.

Trevelyan, G. M. English Social History. 3rd ed.; London: 1955.

Tripathi, Rama Kanta. Spinoza in the Light of the Vedanta. Banaras: 1957.

Tripathi, R. P. The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire. Allahabad: 1960.

Tritton, A. S. Islam: Beliefs and Practices. London: 1951.

Trivedi, D. S. Indian Chronology. Bombay: 1959.

Tucci, Giuseppe. Minor Buddhist Texts. Rome: 1956.

——. Preliminary Report on Two Scientific Expeditions in Nepal. Rome:
1956.

——-. The Tombs of the Tibetan Kings. Rome: 1950.

Turner, R. L. The Position of Romani in Indo-Aryan. Edinburgh: 1927. (Gypsy
Lore Society Monograph No.4.)

Tweedie, M. W. F. Prehistoric Malaya. Rev. ed.; Singapore: 1955.

Tylor, Edward B. Anthropology. London: 1881.

"—- Primitive Culture. 2 vols. London: 1871.

— Researches into the Early History of ‘Mankind and the Development of
Civilization. London: 1865.

Tau, Lao, The Way of Life. London: 1946.

DNESCO. Humanism and Education in East and West Paris: 1953.
Wick, E.J. The Message of Plato. London: 1920.

n M. Histoire Critique de l'école d'Alexandrie. Paris:
shit, Syed Abdul. Igbal. His Art and Thought. London: 1959. =
“ma, V. P. The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, Boks ;

891

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Vatsyayana. Kamasutra. Bombay: 1905.

Vermaseren, M. J. Mithras, the Secret God. London: 1963.

Verrill, A. Hyatt. Old Civilizations of the New World. Indianapolis: 1929.

Vesey-Fitzgerald, Brian. Gypsies in Britain. London: 1944.

. Gypsy Borrow. London: 1953.

Vidler, A. R., ef al. Objections to Christian Belief: London: 1963.

Vidyarthi, Mohan, Lal Venkateswana, and S. Vaidyanatha. India’s Culture
through the Ages. Bombay: 1928-1932.

Visser, M. W. De. The Dragon in China and Japan. Amsterdam: 1913. First
published 1858.
Vlekke, Bernard H. M. Nusantara. Cambridge, Mass.: 1944.

Waddell, L. Austine. The Buddhism of Tibet. Cambridge: 1959.

. The Buddhism of Tibet or Lamaism. Cambridge: 1959.

Wagner, Richard. My Life. London: 1963.

Wales, H. G. Quaritch. The Making of Greater India. 2nd ed.; London: 1961.
. Prehistory and Religion in South-east Asia. London: 1957. |
. Siamese State Ceremonies. London: 1931.

Waley, Arthur (tr.). The Analects of Confucius. London: 1956,
. Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang. London: 1960. Í
. (tr.). The Book of Songs. London: 1954.

. An Introduction to Chinese Painting. London: 1923. |
——. Monkey. London: 1942. i
——.. The No Plays of Japan. London: 1921. |

. The Real Tripitaka. New York and London: 1952. {
. Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China. London: 1939. i
. The Way and Its Power. London: 1942.

Walzer, Richard. Greek into Arabic. Oxford: 1962.

Wang, Kung-hsing. The Chinese Mind. New York: 1946.

Warmington, E. H. The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India.

Cambridge: 1928.

_ Warner, Langdon. The Enduring Art of Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: 1952.

Warren, Henry C Clarke. Buddhism in Translations. Cambridge, Mass.: 1922.
Burton Earl Chinese Literature, New York and London: 1962.
the Grand Historian of China. Translated from the Shih- aU!
- IL and II. New York and London: 1961.

892

BIBLIOGRAPHY

_——. Ssu-Ma Ch’ien Grand Historian of China. New York and London:
1963.

Watt, W. Montgomery (tr.). A/-Ghazali. The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazali.
London: 1953.

—— Islam and the Integration of Society. Evanston, Ill.: 1961.

Watters, Thomas. On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India, Delhi: 1961. First
published London: 1904.

Watts, Alan W. The Legacy of Asia and Western Man. London: 1937.

. Psychotherapy, East and West. New York: 1961.

Wauchope, Robert. Lost Tribes and Sunken Continents, Chicago and London:
1962.

Waxman, Meyer. A History of Jewish Literature. 4 vols. New York: 1938-
1947.

Webb, G, C. E, Gypsies: The Secret People. London: 1960.

Weber, Albrecht. The History of Indian Literature. Translated by John Mann and
Theodor Zachariae. 6th ed.; Varanasi: 1961. First published 1878.

Webster, T. B, L. From Mycenae to Homer. London: 1960.

Weigall, Arthur. The Paganism in our Christianity. London: 1928.

Welch, Holmes. The Parting of the Way. Boston: 1957.

Wells, H. G. The Outline of History. London: 1925.

Wells, Henry W. The Classical Drama of India. London: 1963,

Wells, Kenneth E. Thai Buddhism: Its Rites and Activities. Bangkok: 1934.

Wertheim, W. F. Bali-Studies in Life, Thought, and Ritual. The Hague and
Bandung: 1960.

Westcott, G. H. Kabir and the Kabir Panth, Cawnpore: 1907.

Wheatley , Paul. The Golden Khersonese. Kuala Lumpur: 1961.

Wheeler , J. A, Geometrodinamica. New York and London: 1962.
celer, J. T., and M. Macmillan. European Travellers in India. Calcutta:
1956.

Wheeler, Sir Mortimer. The Indus Civilization. Cambridge: 1953.

Wheeler, Post (ed. and tr.). The Sacred Scriptures of the Japanese. London:
1952,

Whitehead, Alfred N. Adventures of Ideas. New York: 1959, First published
Cambridge: 1933.
ee Science and the Modem World. New York: +
hittaker, Thomas, The Neo-Platonists: A Study in the
Cambridge: 1901,

59. First published 1926.
History of Hellenism.

893

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Wichmann, Hans, and Siegfried Wichmann. Chess: The Story of Chesspieces from
Antiquity to Modern Times. London: 1964.

Wickramasinghe, Martin. Landmarks of Sinhalese Literature. Colombo: 1963,

Wiener, Philip P., and A. Noland (eds.). “Ideas in Cultural Perspective.” Journal
of the History of Ideas. New Brunswick, N.J.: 1962.

Wilhelm, R. A Short History of Chinese Civilization. London: 1929.

Wilke, G. Kulturbeziehungen Zwischen Indien, Orient and Europa. 2nd ed.;
Leipzig: 1923.

Wilkins, H. T. Secret Cities of Old South America. London: 1950.

Willetts, William. Chinese Art. 2 vols. London: 1958.

Willey, Gordon R. “New World Prehistory.” Science, CXXXI, No. 3393 (8
January 1960).

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society, 1780-1950. London: 1958.

Willson, A. Leslie. A Mythical Image: The Ideal of India in German Romanticism.
Durham, N.C.: 1964.

Wilson, Anne C. A Short Account of the Hindu System of Music. London: 1904.

Wilson, Edmund. The Scrolls from the Dead Sea. London: 1955.

Wilson, Horace H. Works. 12 vols. London: 1862-1871.

Winstedt, Richard. The Malays: A Cultural History. 5th ed.; London: 1958.

Winter, H. J. J. Eastern Science. London: 1952.

Winternitz, M. A History of Indian Literature: Translated by S. Ketkar. Vol. I.
2nd ed.; Calcutta: 1927.

Wood, W. A. R. A History of Siam, London: 1926.

Woodcock, George. The Greeks in India. London: 1966.

Woods, J. H. (tr.). The Yoga-System of Patañjali. Cambridge, Mass.: 1914.

Woodward, F. L. Some Sayings of the Buddha. London: 1925.

Woolley, Sir Charles Leonard. Mesopotamia and the Middle East. London:
1961.

Wormington, H. M. Ancient Man in North America. 4th ed.; Denver: 1939.

Wright, Arthur F. Buddhism in Chinese History. Stanford: 1959.

(ed.). Studies in Chinese Thought. Chicago: 1953.

and Denis Twitchett (eds.). Confucian Personalities. Stanford: 1962.

Wright, Daniel. History of Nepal. Calcutta: 1877.

Wright, Elizar Jr. (tr.). Fables of La Fontaine. 2 vols. New York: 1841.

Yang, C. K. Religion in Chinese Society, Berkeley: 1961.
Yate ed.). A Book of Gypsy Folk-Tales. New York and London: 1948.
eee 894

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Yeats, W. B. Autobiography. London: 1926.

Yesudian, Selvarajan, and Elisabeth Haich. Yoga: Uniting East and West. London:
1956.

Yi-Pao Mei (tr.). The Ethical and Political Works of Motse. London: 1929.

Young, T. C. (ed.). Near Eastern Culture and Society. Princeton: 1951.

Yu-Lan Fung (tr.). Chuang Tzu. Shanghai: 1933.

——. A History of Chinese Philosophy. Translated by Derk Bodde. Vols. I-III.
Princeton. 1956.

. A Short History of Chinese Philosophy. London: 1948.

. The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy. London: 1947.

Yutang, Lin (ed.). The Wisdom of China and India. New York: 1942.

. The Wisdom of Laotse. New York: 1948.

Zaehner, R. C. Hindu and Muslim Mysticism. London: 1960.

. The Teachings of the Magi. London: 1956.

Zaide, Gregario F. Philippine Political and Cultural History. Vols. I and II. Rev.
ed.; Manila: 1957.

Zeller, Eduard. Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy. New York: 1960.

Zimmer, Heinrich R., and J. Campbell. The Art of Indian Asia. 2 vols. New
York: 1955.

Zimmer, Henry R. Hindu Medicine. Baltimore: 1948.

—— Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. New York: 1953.

— Philosophies of India. New York: 1951.

Zoete, Beryl D. E. Dance and Magic Drama in Ceylon. London: 1957.

——. The Other Mind. London: 1953.

Zürcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China. 2 vols. of text and notes respectively.
Leiden: 1959.

895

INDEX

Abbasid Caliphate, 154-155, al-Adawiyya, Rabia, 626 |
165-166 al-Arabi, Muhi al-Din ibn, 627 |
Abdurrahman, 169 al-As, Amr ibn, 152 |
Abel-Remusat, 654-655 Al-Athar al-Bagiyak an al-Quran al-
Abul-Wafa, 164 Khaliyah, 163
Achaemenian Empire, 56; al-Battani, Muhammad ibn Jabir,
Achaemenian kings, 67; 163
Achaemenians, 16 Al Biruni, 162-163, 185, 306, 505,
Adelard, 170 574, 594
adi (absolute) Buddha, 386 Alexander the Great, 43, 67, 80-81,

78178; claims to divinity, 68, 70;
companions and officers of, 53;
contact with Indian sages and
scholars, 53; creation of mixed
Greek—Asian empire, 52-53;

me death of, 55; demolition of
power, 50-51; dream of

INDEX

70-71; missionary activities, 57;
power of, 51-52, 55; and spread
of Buddhism, 54

Alexandria, 114, 142, 155, 161,
168; Arab conquer of, 152;
commercial facilities, 81;
contribution to literature and
learning, 81; cosmopolitanism
in, 82; as cultural capital, 80;
destruction of libraries, 152;
distance from Indian ports,
86; emergence of Greek power
in, 82; greatness of, 81; Indian
residents in, 90-91

Alexandrian astrology, 182-183

Alexandrian science, 186

Al Farabi, 158

al-Ghazali, Imam, 626

al-Hajjaj, Mansur, 626

Ali, Caliph, 154

Ali, Isa ibn, 159

Al Junaid, 626

al-Khattab, Caliph Omar ibn, 152

al-Khulaja al-Rashidun, 154

Al Khwarizmi, 160, 162, 164

Al Kindi, 157, 160

Al Mamun, 157-158

Al Mansur, Caliph, 157, 233

Al Masudi, 258, 574

al-Misri, Dhul-Nun, 626

Al Motasim, 272

al-Mugaffa, Abu Muhammad ibn,
159

al-Nadim, Muhammad bin Ishaq
ibn, 162, 166

Al Rashid, Harum, 157-158, 166

al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn

Zakariya, 167

Al Razi (Rhazes), 158

Al Suffah, 159

Altekar, A. S., 57

Alvaro of Cordova, 169-170

Al Yaqubi, 260

American cottons, 493-496

American response to Indian culture,
700-706

Amitabha Buddha, 370, 381, 383,
420, 429, 448

Amos, 20

Ampere, Jean-Jacques, 687

Amrtahridaya, 200

Amsurvarman, King, 315, 318

anal-haqq, doctrine of, 629

Anaxagoras, 22, 32

Anaxarchus, 72

Anaximander, 21-22

Ancient Americans, 82671

ancient cultures, 2

Ancient Fables and Stories, 232

Anesaki, Masaharu, 431

Anthony, 79

Antioch, 81-82

Anushirvan, King Khusru, 166, 228

Apollonius of Tyana, 128

Apostle Thomas, 125

Aquinas, St. Thomas, 257

Arab conquests, 153-154;
commercial enterprises of Arabs,
156; East-West contact during,
156; penetration of India, 153;
Spain, 168-169; Umayyad
aliphate, 154

Arab culture, 156-157; Hellenic
heritage and, 159-160; impact

897

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

on Spain, 169

Arabian Nights, 155, 223, 231-232,
242

Arabs: Arabic language, 159;
Arabic literature, 157, 160;
Arabic numerals, 190; Arabic
translations, 160; aristocracy of,
155; astronomy and, 163-166;
descents of, 158; mathematics
of, 164; medicine system,
167-168; philosophers, 158;
philosophy of, 159, 170; regard
for India, 161-162; scholarship,
158; science, 164, 170; scientific
irrigation, knowledge of,
168-169; toxicology, knowledge,
168; travellers to India, 161-162

Arab ships, 155-156

Aratus of Soli, 75

archaeological excavations, 3,
301-305, 312-313

Aristotle, 34, 39, 41-43, 50-51, 53,
77, 204

Aristoxenus, 34

Arithmetica, 191

Ariyan truths (Ariyasaccani), 99

Arnold, Sir Edwin, 232-233, 685,
696

Arrian, 204

446-447; Kamakura painting,
448; Korean Buddhism: art, 422,
limestone sculptures of Hsiang-
tang-shan, 403; at Lung-men
caves, 403; Mathura, 62; Mayan
civilization, 479-481; mural
paintings, 401; painting of
Sie-Ho, 404; profit from Greek,
65-66; Sillan, 419; Tun-huang,
401; Wei sculpture, 402; Yavana
orkmanship, 63

arta brazmaniya, (Brahmanic order),
175

Artatama, 9

Arthasastra, 84-85, 227, 243, 326,
511

Aryabhata, 164, 180, 184-186,
189-190

Aryabhatiya, 184, 189

Aryan movement, 14

Aryan princes, 9

Aryans, 8, 12

Aryan speech, 10

Arya Samaj, 735-736

Ashtadhyayi, 179

Ashtangahrdaya, 167

Ashtangahrdaya Samhita, 199

Asia Minor, 8-9, 47, 80

Asiomerican civilizations: advanced
system of medicine and herbal
remedies, 459; Asian origins
of Asiomericans, 468—475,

ce 500-501, 503; Asiomerican

alture, early history, 455-456;
astr f mical observations,

INDEX

coconut cultivation, 496-497,
contact between Asian and
American species, 494—498;
cotton cultivation, 493-496,
82933; ethnic diversity of
Asiomericans, 470-471; food
cultivation, 465, 499; gods,
485-486; Hindu-Buddhist
thought, influence of, 487-490;
Incas, 461—462; and Indian
system of notation, 458;
linguistic kinship between India
and ancient America, 492; maize
plant cultivation, 497—498;
Mayan civilization, 455-456;
Mayas of Yucatan, 458; method
of recording events and sending
messages, 500; Mongoloid
features of Asiomericans, 470-
471; mumification method, 492;
parallels between the arts and
culture of India, 477-479; pre-
Inca Meche and Chimu cultures,
462; Quetzalcoatl, myth of, 487;
Salinar culture, 477; similarity,
477-485; Southeast Asian
influence, 477-485, 491—492;
Sweet potato cultivation, 499;
Toltecs, 458-459, 486-487;
Volador ritual, similarity with
Indian rite of hook-swinging,
491-499

Asoka, Emperor, 97, 314-315, 323,
339; Buddhist Sangili Council,
97; columns and statues, 17;
inscriptions, 12, 17, 97, 306;
Tock edicts, 98

Assurbanipal, 5

Syrian Empire, 11

astronomy, 163-164, 408;
Asiomerican civilizations
456-457; Tarkib al-Aflak
principles, 164

asva, 9

Asvins, 9

Ataturk, Kemal, 154

Atharva Veda, 8, 198, 204

Athenian Greeks, 21

Athens, 50

Athinganoi, 272

Atisa, 322, 324

Atomic theory, 32

?

atomism, 167

Atreya, 199

Attalid dynasty of Pergamum, 80

Auden, W. H., 711

Augustus, 67, 85

Augustus, Emperor, 87, 92

Aurelius, Marcus, 75

Aurora, 21, 80578

Avalokitesvara, 370, 386

Avatamsaka Sutra, 352

Avesta, 15,175

Ayurvedic medicine, 197, 200,
802745; Ayurvedic diagnosis
and therapeutics, 200

Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam, 741

Aztecs: artistic achievement, 464;
development of lake civilization,
459; human sacrifice, practice
of, 463; Spanish conquerors and,
459-461 .

Babrius, Valerius, 239 i
Babylon, 11, 16; astronomy, 182;
- sexagesimal system, 190

899

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Babylonia, 8, 10, 66, 82

Bach, Wilhelm Friedemann, 296

Bacon, Francis, 172
Bacon, Roger, 170
Badian, E., 70

Baghdad, cultural atmosphere of,

155
Baital Pachisi, 235
Bakr, Caliph Abu, 149, 151
Bakshali Manuscript, 189
Balavariani, 233
Bardesanes, 134
Barker, Sir Ernest, 70
Barlaam and Josaphat, 233
Basilides, 132-133, 136
Bataillard, Paul, 290
Battle of Agincourt, 263
Battuta, Ibn, 162
Baveru Jataka, 11, 100
Bayt at hikma, 157
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 677
Beitrage Zur Kenntniss der
Zigeunermundarten, 278
Benfey, Theodor, 219, 238
Ben Gypsies, 272
Bering Straits theory, 470
Bernier, Francois, 642
Besant, A

Brahmananda, Swami, 715

Bihari Doms, 285-286

‘The Biography of. Emperor Mu, 395

Biot, J. B., 182

Biridaswa of Yenoam, 9

Black Death, 263

Blake, William, 689-690

Blavatsky, Madame H. P., 715

Boccaccio, Giovanni, 234

Bodhidharma, 349, 353-354, 382,
384, 411, 434

Bodhimitra, 321

Bodhiruci, 355

Bodhisattva, 371, 410

Bodhisattva Manjusri, 432

Bodhisattvas, 378, 403

Boeotia, 21

Book of Calculation of Restoration and
Reduction, 164

Book of Changes, 388

Book of Enoch, 118-119

Book of Shanab, 168

The Book of Wisdom, 128

Borde, Andrew, 276

Borrow, George, 264, 277

Bose, Jagdish Chandra, 714

Bose, Sir J. C., 208

Bower Manuscript, 301

Bowie, John, 77

Brahmagupta, 180, 185, 191, 193

Brahman, 26

ahmanas of Tagabena —

INDEX

Brhatsambita, 185
Brihatkatha, 226
Brihat Kathasaritsagara, 235

in India, 58, 99; Islamic

attacks on, 314; in Khotan,

309, 311; King Glandarma’s
suppression of, 322; in Korea,
417; Mahavamsa, 98; Mahayana
Buddhism, 100; massacre of
Buddhists by Chinese, 303;
medicine, 198-199; Middle
Way, 99; missionary activity,
300; monastic systems, 124,

British politics and education, 764
Buddhabhadra, 352
Buddhacarita-kavya, 395
Buddhaghosa, 242

Buddhayasas, 352

Buddha Yatra, 310

Buddhism, 24-25, 74, 77, 135,

229, 701; affinity of spirit,

124; archaeological finds

on, 301-305, 312-313; art

and literature, 100, 832732;
Asoka’s endeavours to spread,
98; attitude of Greeks, 60; in
Balkan region, 306; birth of
Buddha, 121; Buddha images,
310; Buddhist canonical works,
301; Buddhist literature, 11;
Buddhist Sangha, 96-97;
Buddhist studies in India, 454;
Buddhist symbolism, 393;
Buddhist texts in Indian scripts,
305; Burma, 533-534, 536-540;
as a catalyst, 300; in Central
Asia, 300-304, 311; Ch’an, 404-
405; Chinese accounts of, 300;
in Chinese Turkistan, 307-308;
clerical celibacy, confession, the
veneration of relics, 124; decline
of, 103, 316, 363; dhamma, 97;
tamoe discovered, 303;
expansion along northern route,
312; expansion of, 60; fresco.

or distemper paintings, 310;
Hinayana school, 102; ideas

309, 363; in Mongolia, 417;
monk-and-laymen intercourse,
97; Mulasarvastivada school

of, 315; in Nepal, 314-316;
Nirvana concept, 188, 309;
Noble Eightfold Path, 99;
origin, 98-99; Pali Canon, 98;
in Persia, 100-102; Philippine
culture, 590; in Philippines, 590;
philosophy of, 178; Rapachen’s
devotion to, 321-322; during
reign of Kaniska, 100; religious
missions, 97-98, 101; second
coming of Maitreya Buddha,
122; similarity of Christ with
Buddha, 121-124; in Sogdiana,
306-307; Southeast Asia,
517-518, 524; spread of, 95-96;
Sri Lanka, Sinhala, or Ceylon,
528-530; stupas, 99; temptations
of Buddha, 123; theory of
Buddhist influence, 468-469;
Theravada Buddhist Canonical
works, 98; in Tibet, 317-325;
in Tokharestan, 304-305, 313;
translations of Buddhist texts,
103; in western Asia, 101; in
Western countries, 367

of compassion and abimsa, 97; Buddhism in China, 305-307,

901

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

311-312, 326-327; art, influence
in, 399-405; biographical
details of the Buddha, 340-341;
Buddha images, 400, 402;
Buddhist ideals vs Chinese
popular view, 347-348;
Buddhist influence on Chinese
cultural life, 386-387; Buddhist
missionaries, 348-350; Ch’an
School, 383-384; Chen-

Yen school, 386; Chinese
assimilation of Buddhism,
381-382; Chinese literature,
influence in, 394-399; Chinese
monks in India, 359; Chinese
science, Buddhist influence

on, 408; Chu Hsi school,
389-391; concepts of karma,
348; contributions, 378-379;
controversy between Taoism
and, 374-376; date of entry,
338-339; decline of, 377-378;
Dhyana School, 324, 354,
382-384; expansion in, 370-
371; Fa hsiang-tsung school,
385-386; family relationships,
370; glowing spirituality of,
369; Great Monastery, 351;
Indian monks celebrated in
China, 353-354; influence in
life, 371-372; Kiu-she school,
386; under Liang dynasty,
374-375; Lu School, 391; Lu-

popularity under Southern and
Northern dynasties, 373-374;
processes of confrontation and
assimilation, 368; revival and
reform of, 366-367; Shao-Lin
monastery, 354; Shao-lin style
of boxing, 411; Tantrism or
Vajrayana, 386, 408; theistic
beliefs, 379; Tien-Tai school,
384-385; translation of Buddhist
scriptures to Chinese, 342-343;
transmission of Buddhist
knowledge, 352-353; White
Horse Monastery, 349-350

Bugas, 9

Buono, Otkaviano, 273

Burkitt, F. C., 140

Burma, 506-507, 513-514, 533-
540; Ari cult, 537; Buddhist
tradition, 533-534, 536-538;
Ceylonese Buddhism in,
539; Chinese domination,
534; decline of Buddhism in,
539-540; earliest Buddhist
relics, 536-537; Hinduism,
537-538; Indo-Burmese cultural
contact, 534-535; Pyu dynasty,
536-537; racial groups in,
535-536; Sakyan migration
from India, 534; temples and
stupas, 538-539

Burn, A. R., 19

Butlan, Ibn, 159

Caesar, Augustus, 104

Caesar, Julius, 67

_ Calanus, 53
_ Calila c Dymna, 230

a

em ee a

INDEX

Callisthenes, 68
Callisthenes of Othlynthus, 53
Carakasamhita, 168
Carlyle, Thomas, 691
Carre, Abbe, 642
Carthage, 79
Carvaka, 24
Carvakas, 177
Catechetical school of Alexandria, 115
Catholic Emancipation Act, 764
Central Asian art, 310
Cervantes, Miguel de, 267
Chain of Histories, 161
Chaldean Empire, 10
Ch’an Buddhism, 404—405
Chandogya Upanishad, 224, 240
Ch’an philosophy, 383; Taoist
content in, 384

Charaka, 199
Charaka Sambita, 199
Charax Spasini, 89
Chari Buddhism, 383
chariot racing, handbook on, 9
Charles, Philare le, 687
Charles V, 264
Charles VI, 264
Charumati, 315
Cheng, Peng, 342
Cheng-en, Wu, 395
Chezy, Leonard de, 653-654
Chi-chao, Liang, 339, 366
Chien, Chang, 327

hien-chih, Kou, 373
Chih-i, 385
Childe, Gordon, 7
The Childhood of Fiction, 222

903

China, 326. see also Buddhism in
China; astronomical schools,
409; Buddhism in, 305-307,
311-312, 326-327, 338; chess
game, 411; Chin dynasty, 344—
345, 363-364, 371; Chinese
drama, 398; Chinese games,
411; Chinese language, influence
of Sanskrit, 394; Chinese
medicine, 410-411; Chinese
monks in India, 332; Chinese
philosophy, 332; Chinese
poems, 395-396; Chinese ports,
330-331; Chinese Quietism,
327, 384; Chinese script, 399;
Chinese sense of realism, 396;
Chinese stories, 396; Chinese
style of essay-writing, 397;
Chinese vocabulary, 398;
Eastern Chin period, 394;
expansion of Indian culture into,
378; Han dynasty, 340, 346;
Hsi-Hsia dynasty, 364; Indian
influence on Chinese thought,
379-380; Indian monks in, 348-
349; Liao dynasty, 363; Manchu
dynasty, 377; maritime relations
between India and, 327; Ming
dynasty, 365, 391-392; Mongol
rule, 364-365; Mongols dynasty,
377; philosophical controversy,
380-383; pien wen in Chinese
literature, 397-398; porcelain,
328; Prajna School, 346; Shao-
Jin style of boxing, 411; Shih
Huang-ti regime, 339-340; silk,
328; Sung dynasty, 363, 387—
388; sutras, story-telling form
of, 397-398; T'ang dynasty, 356,

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

359-360, 363, 375, 399; trade
relations with India, 327-328,
trade routes between India and,
328-330; Wei dynasty, 340,
344-345, 354, 359, 373; wootz
steel, 328
Chinese coin, 327
Chinese knowledge of anatomy and
anthropometric measurements,
211
Chinese science, 182
Chinese silk (Sericum or Seric silk),
88
Ching philosophy, 336
Chos-kyirgyalmthsan, 321
Christianity, 54, 77, 100, 103, 213,
724; Acts of the Apostles,
121; “Battle of the Scrolls,”
109-110; birth of Christ, 121;
Buddhist influences, 117;
Christian representations of
crucifixion, 112; Churches, 115;
clerical celibacy, confession,
the veneration of relics, 124;
Dead Sea Scrolls, 109-110,
118; doctrine of original sin and
redemption, 125; eschatology,
Christian view of, 120;
exponents of, 135-136; forms
and symbols used, 114; future
: life, Christian view of, 120;

l 705; Gnosticism,

factors, 105-106; intrinsic
superiority of, 115-116;
Jesus Christ, 104-105, 108,
113-114, 120, 128, 789766;
Jewish Bible (Old Testament),
108-109; Judaism, influence
of, 107, 118, 120; Kingdom
of God, concept of, 119; Last
Supper (the Eucharist), 114;
martyrdom of Jesus, 110;
miracles, 122; monasticism
and, 115; monastic systems,
124; Neoplatonic influence,
143-144; New Testament, 118,
121; Notovitch’s assertions on
Christ, 125; origin of, 104-105;
Orphic beliefs in, 112; Plotinus
and, 143; relationship between
Neoplatonism and, 137;
representation of Jesus, 120-121;
Roman empire and, 144-145;
second coming of Christ, 122;
similarities between Mithraism,
112-114; similarity of Christ
with Buddha, 121-124; spread
of, 116; syncretic nature of,
107, 110; teachings of Jesus,
104; temptations of Christ, 123;
Tibetan religion, similarities
with, 124

Christian religious thought, 35

Christian Science movement in
America, 703

‘Chrysostom, Dion, 90

Chuang-Tzu, 393

~ Chuang-tzu, 334, 336, 352

KS Chuang-txu, 395
Chuan Hsueh-pien, 366

=

INDEX

Chung, Wang, 337

Chung-kuo, 326

Chung kuo fo chiao hsieh hui, 367

Chung-Yen, Fan, 391

Chu-ping, Ho, 340

cinnamon, 88

civilization: early signs of, 1;
international trade, ancient
times, 10-11; literary evidence,
3; trade relations, 2-3

Clement, 136

Clements, E., 253

Cleopatra, 79

Clitus, 52

coinage, 17; Greek influence on
Indian, 63

Colebrooke, 38

Colebrooke, H. T., 646

Colebrooke, Henry Thomas,
649-650

Communism, 725

Conde Lucanor, 234

Confucianism, 332-337, 369-370,
372, 375, 378, 387-388;
Confucianist “ceremonialism,
336; doctrine of reciprocity,
393; doctrine of the Supreme
Ultimate, 389-390; in Japan,
425; in Korea, 420; in Later
Han period, 337; principle of
restraint, 337

Confucius, 20, 333-334; distinction
between metaphysics and ethics,
333-334; reformation of society,
334

Constantine, Emperor, 113,
144-146; Constantinople (Nova

»

Roma), 147
Constantinople, 155
Contes populaires de Lorraine, 220
Continental Drift, theory of, 465
Coomaraswamy, 22
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, 714
Coomaraswamy, Ananda K., 253
Copernicus, 164
Cosquin, Emmanuel, 220
cotton, 5
Cowell, Henry, 254
Cox, Sir George, 219
Cromwell, Lord Thom, 265
Ctesias, 19 :
cult of divine rulers, 67
cultural evolution, 2
Cynic philosophy, 74
Cyrus, 50

Dahlke, Paul, 686

Dakas, 9

Dalai Lamas, 318-319, 324-325

Dalmata, Herman, 170

Damascus blades, 195

Danasila, 321

Dandamis, 53

Dandan-Viliq, 102

Danielou, Alain, 253

Darius, 16-17, 51

Darius III, 19

Das Buch der Beispiele der alten
Weisen, 230

Davids, Rhys, 120

Davids, T. W. Rhys, 696-€77

Day, C. R. 253

Dayananda, Swami, 735-736

905

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Dea Roma, 106

Debussy, Claude, 255

Decameron, 234

deification of rulers, 70

Deimachos, 57

deities/gods: Greek, 43-44; Greek
Olympian, 44; Hittite, 9;
Homeric idea of a language of,
22; Indian, 9; of Mittani, 9;
vedic concepts, 25

Delage, Maurice, 254

De Literis et Lingua Getarum, 276

De Ludis Orientalibus, 258

Demetrius I, 58

Democritus, 32

Descartes, Rene, 172

Deslongchamps, Loiseleur, 219

Deussen, Paul, 681, 683

Deva, Acharya Narendra, 754

Dhammapada, 301, 310

Dhammapada Commentary, 242

Dhan, Ibn, 167

dharmachakra, 17

Dharmaraksha, 349-350

Dharmaratna, 349

Dharmasastra, 227

Dharmayasas, 352

Dhyana Buddhism, 349

Dhyana exercises, 354

d'Indy, Vincent, 253

Diocletian, 146

Diocletian, Emperor, 144

Dionysius the Areopagite, 143

Diophantine equations, 1991

Diophantus of Alexandria, 191

Directorium vitae humanae, 230

Doctrine of the Mean, 388

Dodds, E. R., 49

Domar, 285

Dpal-brt segs, 321

drama: Buddhist dramas of
Asvaghosa, 64; differences in
approach and style between
Indian and Greek, 64-65;
Greek concepts of tragedy and
early Attic comedy, 65; Greek
influence on Indian, 64; Hindu,
64-65; Sanskrit natakas (plays),
65

Driscoll, Jem, 289

Duff, Charles, 268

Dukas, Paul, 253

Duris of Sames, 68

Dusratta, 9

Easter Island, 4-5
Eddy, Mary Baker, 703
Edmonds, A. J., 125
Edmunds, A. S., 697

Egypt, 3

___ Egyptian-Indian trade, 82-85
_ Egyptian origin theory, 466

INDEX

Eliot, T. S., 698, 711-712

Elizabeth I, 265

Ellis, Alexander, 253

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 701

Eminescu, Mihai, 699

Empedocles, 32, 48

Enfield, 38

English Morris (Moorish) dance,
295

English response to Indian culture,
687-699

enlightened monarchs, 84

Enneads, 137, 142

Epictetus, 75

Epicureanism, 71, 76-77

Epicurus, 76

Epiphanius, 133

Epithumia, 39

Era of Heavenly Peace, 428

Essenes, 117, 128

Euphrates River, 16

Euripides, 35, 50

Europe: early civilization, 1

European explorers in India, 635;
attitude towards Indian culture,
641-642; English, 639-640,
643-650; exchange of learned
publications between France
and India, 655-675; French,
642-643; Mughal power,
decline of, 637-639; Portuguese,
635-637

European Greeks, 47

Evocations, 254

Exilic Hebrew script, 109

fables and folklores: Aesop’s Fables,

907

219-220, 238-240; anecdotes
with animal heroes, 224;

animal fables, 231, 238; Aryan
mythological heritage, 216;
Baital Pachisi, 219; based on
primitive beliefs and practices,
222; beast fables, 213, 238; beast
tales, 224-225; Buddhist tales,
225-226, 233, 241; comparison
between ape king and Irish King
Bran, 216; cultural diffusion
between southern Asia and
ancient America, 221; cultural
evolution, impact of, 222; De
Vries’ theory of archetyes,

223; distinction between myth
and fable, 213; diversity of
theme, setting, situation, and
characterization, 215; Egyptian,
220-221; in Europe, 212;
Finnish, 220-221; Grimm's Fairy
Tales, 218; Hellenic fables, 239;
Indian fable migration, 226-
235; Indo-European mythology,
215-218; La Fontaine's Fables,
236, 239; Lang’s anthropological
theory, 221; Mahabharata

fables, 224; mediaeval, 233-234,
238; metamorphosis themes,
224; origins of, 222-223;
Pancatantra, 219-220; parallels
between Gypsy and Indian,
286-287; Peuckert’s theory of
origin, 223; popular European
storybooks, 234; in rabbinic
literature, 242-244; similarities
between Greek and Indian
fables, 238-244; Sukasaptati,
219; tales of Hercules, Thor, and

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indra, 215-216; theory of Indian
primacy, 221; from Vedas, 216,
Vetalapancavimsati, 219

Fa-hsien, 309, 312, 331, 345,
358-359, 400

Fa-hu, Chu, 349

Faraj, Abul, 152

Fa-yong, 359

Fazl, Abul, 305

Jeng shui, 371

Feuchtwanger, Peter, 256

Fibonacci, 190

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 680

figurines, 5

fire, 8

Fiske, John, 219

Fo Kuo Chi, 358

Fox-Strangway, A. H., 253

France, Indian concepts in, 686-687

Frazer, Sir James George, 222

Fu-Sang, 468

Gaius (Caligula), 87
Galerius, Emperor, 144
Galilei, Galileo, 173
Gama, Vasco da, 52, 155
_ games: atepeds, 258; chatrang-

cigs Philo, 127-128; Plato, 127

Gandhi, Mahatma, 104, 700-702,
705, 758, 761, 767

Gandhi’s philosophy, 700-706, 760

Garbe, Richard, 28, 125, 178

Gautama, Siddhartha, 98

Geden-dub, 324

gems, 63

Genji Monogatari, 442

Germany, Indian concepts in,
674-686

Gerra, 89

Gesta Romanorum, 234-235

Ghose, Aurobindo, 707-708, 757

Ghosh, Harachandra, 755

Gitanos, 268-269

Glanville-Hicks, Peggy, 254

Gnosticism, 103, 129-131, 141,
as an intellectual activity, 130;
cardinal feature of, 131; doctrine
of plurality of heavens, 133;
Gnostic aphorism, 132; Gnostic
dualism, 132; Gnostic God, 131;
Gnostic ideas, 131-132; Gnostic
texts, 130; and Hermetic
tradition of Egypt, 134; Indian
influence on, 134; influence
on Christianity, 132; nature
and significance of, 129; sects,
131-132; teachers, 132

God concept, 127; distinction

between God and wisdom, 128;

Hermetic tradition, 135; notion

= ofan intermediary power, 127;

INDEX

Gorki, Maxim, 700

Gothic arts, 46

Graeco-Buddhist art, 306, 782724

Graeco-Roman art, 310

Graeco-Roman divine figures, 60

Greek—Asian empire, 52-53;
movements of peoples, 57

Greek-Indian trade, 19-20, 43, 84

Greeks, 7777102; architecture and
sculpture, 59; cities, capture
of, 50; culture, 19-20, 66; girls
for Indian harems, 90; heavy
drinking attitude of, 51-52;
heritage, 46; institutions, 72;
mythologies, 216; nationalism,
21, Olympian gods, 44;
philosophy, 32, 39, 45—47, 72,
127, philosophy, divine origin
of soul, 37; philosophy, divinity,
44; philosophy, Indian influence
on, 28, 48; polytheism, 22;
religion, 776789; science, 71;
sexual life, 88

Grimm, Jacob, 220

Grimm, Wilhelm, 218

Grimm's Fairy Tales, 218, 220

Grosset, J., 253

Grossetete, Robert, 170

Grunwedel, Albert, 302, 308

Gubernatis, Angelo de, 219

Guenon, 23

Gunabhadra, 353

Gunavarman, 352

Gupta art, 310

Supta Empire, 147

Gur, Bahram, 270

Gypsies, 262-263, 810n2, 811710,

909

811714. see also Romani
language; attempts of expulsion
from European country,
263-266; basic language of,
269-270, 276-278; in Britain,
265; in Byzantine territory,

272; campaigns against Ghorid
tulers, 270; Christian, 267;
communication method, 279;
courtship, 284; cultural traits

of, 288; dance, 294-295, 298;
diaspora, 275; Egyptian origin
to, 275; English, 267; in Europe,
273-275; as fortune-tellers, 282;
genealogy of, 268; Gypsy fables,
286-287; Gypsy settlements

and societies, 268; Gypsy tribal
chief, 283; heritage of laws and
customs, 283; in Hungary, 264;
in India, 269-271, 283; Jats

of northern India, 271, 278;

as jugglers, story-tellers, and
entertainers, 287; knowledge of
metallurgy, 281-282, 290; legal
discrimination against, 265; as
lute player, 291; marriages, 284;
musical abilities, 291, 294-296,
814731; musical instruments,
291-293; Muslim, 267; patrin,
279; persecution of, 263-265; in
Persia, 272; professions practiced
by, 282; rebellion against Timur,
270; religious beliefs, 284-285;
in Romania, 264; in Russia, 266;
in Scotland, 265; similarities
between Indian and European,
285; as slaves, 264; in Spain,
264; as spies, messengers, and
“go-betweens,” 288; stereotyped

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

image of, 266-267; traditions, Hermetic tradition of Egypt, 134;
taboos, beliefs, superstitions, God concept, 135
social customs and manners, Herodotus, 50
283; and tragedies in Germany, Hero of Alexandria, 193
263; in Transylvania, 264; hero-worship, 69
women, status of, 283 Hertel, Johannes, 238
Hesse, Hermann, 685-686

Hadrian, 85 Hinayana Buddhism, 322, 346
Hananiah, Rabbi Joshua ben, 244 Hindu, 18

Han Dynasty, 54 Hindu drama, 64-65

Han dynasty, 336 Hinduism, 24, 77, 103, 701; beliefs
Hanxleden, Johann Ernst, 644 of, 45; Nirguna God, 133
Hao, Cheng, 389 Hindus, 2

Harappan c‘vilization, 3—4 Hindu Trinity, 469

Harewood, Lord, 255 Hippalus, 85-86

Harsha, 355 Hippolytus, 95

Harsha the Palas, 147 Hiram, Ķing, 10

Hastings, Warren, 645-646 Hisabul Hindi, 165

Hastya yur Veda, 210 The History of the Greek Fable, 239
Haukal, Ibn, 162 Hitopadesa, 223, 232, 235-236, 242
Havell, E. B., 54 Hittite deities, 9-10

Hayyan, Jabir ibn, 159 Hoffmann, E. T. A., 678

Hebrew, 11 Holagu, 152

Hecataeus of Miletus, 18 Holmqvist, Wilhelm, 95

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, Holst, Gustav, 253-254
682 Homeric hymns, 216-217, 773n52
Heine, Heinrich, 678 Hoa roen 2i
_ Hellenism, 66-67, 526; Hellenistic Hoccdiiamn 22
culture, 75, 82; Hellenistic Hosea, 20

Hovhannes, Alan, 254
- Hsi, Chu, 372, 389-390, 392
Hsiang-kuang, Chou, 387
_ Hsiang-Shan, Lu, 390-391
] siao-ming, Emperor, 374
mperor Yao, 351
102, 304, 306, 313;

INDEX

353, 355-356, 361-362, 380,
385, 397, 400
Hsiian-tse, Wang, 361
Hsuan-wu, Emperor, 403
Hu, Queen, 354
Huan, Emperor, 342
Huan, Ku, 373
Huang-ti, Shih, 339-340
Huayen doctrine, 418
Hugo, Victor, 686
Hui-Yuan, 381, 385
Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 677
Hussain, Zakir, 754
Huxley, Aldous, 711
Hyde, Thomas, 258

Iamblichus, 142

Lhsing, 409

Iliad, 21

Misa Jataka, 123

Incas, 461-462; caste system, 489;
communication and road
systems, 462; engineering skills,
462; Indian influence on, 489;
Spanish conquerors and, 462-
463; village system, 461—462

India: life in ancient, 44—45

Indian civilization, 2, 14. see also
modern India; antiquity of,
2; Arab influence in Malabar,
598-599; Arab rulers of Sind,
597-598; architecture, Islamic
influence on, 614-620; Bhakti
cult, 606-608; British impact
on, 742-754, 763-766; Chinese
cultural influence on, 412—413;
Contact between ancient Egypt

and Mesopotamia, 6; continuity
of, 2; crafts, Islamic influence
on, 621; economic consequences
of British rule, 745-746; Hindu-
Muslim union in mediaeval
India, 606-607; inception of
Caliphate in India, 600-601;
Indian cotton trade, 5; Indo-
Aryan culture, 54; Indo-Aryan
deities, 9; Indo-European group
of languages, 13-14; Indo-
European movement. see Aryan
movement; Indo-European
peoples, 215; Indo-Europeans’
common cultural heritage, 9-10;
Indo-Greek contact, 19-20,
43, 58-66, 83-84; Indo-Iran
contact, 14-15; Indo-Islamic art
and culture, 603-604, 609-610;
Islamic impact on Indian urban
life, 621-623, 739-744; Islamic
influence, 604-618; law, British
impact on, 744-745; Mughal
period, 604; music, 610-612;
Muslim dynasties in India,
602-603; Muslim penetration
into India, 597; raids of
Mahmud of Ghazni and, 596,
599-600; Rajput dynasty,
595-596; religious reforms,
606-608; sculpture and painting,
Islamic influence on, 612-614;
Sultanate of Delhi, 601-602;
synthesis of Hindu and Muslim
musical elements, 610-611;
Turki-Afghan invasions, 596,
599-600

Indian contribution to Western diet,

798219

911

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Indian geography, 90

Indian gods, 6

Indian pharmacopoeia, 208;
cannabis indica, 208; garlic,
208; Ayoscyamus, 208; mercury,
208; rauwolfia serpentine, 208;
turmeric (haridra), 209

Indian philosophy, 24. see also vedic
India concepts; agreement
between Pythagorism and
the Indian doctrine, 30;
Bhagavad Gita, 43; darshana,
27; distinction between
purusha and prakriti, 178-179;
doctrine of reincarnation, 40;
gunas, 39; influence on Greek
philosophy, 28, 48; life, 27;
manana, 27; of naturalism,
176-177, 179; nididbyasana, 27;
Nyaya-Vaisesika, 179, 194; in

Roman world, 80; Samkhya, 28;

Samkhya system, 178; sravana,
27; transformation of one’s
being, 27; Varna system, 39; us
Western tradition, 26-27; Yoga
system, 178

Indian theatre: Greek influence on,
64; Hindu drama, 64-65

Indika, 19

Indochina (Cambodia), aoe 208)

post-Gupta architecture, 553;
Kambuja kingdom, 556-557;
Khmer Empire, 557-558, 561;
Sailendras, 557-558; Saiva
temples, 559
Indo-European languages, 278, 286,
492, 654, 661
Indo-European people, 33, 213-219,
770n28
Indo-Greek rule in India, 58; art
and sculpture, 59-65; cultural
impact, 66; trade, 58-59, 83-84
Indo-Iran contact, 14-15; between
vedic Indians and Iranians, 15
Indology in Germany, 673-674
Indonesia: architecture and sculpture,
585-587; Balinese culture,
588; Chola rulers and, 574;
early Indianized kingdom in,
571-574; early Javanese history,
570; Hindu-Buddhist deities,
587; Indian influence, 569-570;
Indian philosophical and literary
texts, influence of, 580-581;
Indian tradition of puppet
shows, 582; Indo-Javanese art,
584; Indonesian concept of
chivalry, 581; Islamic culture
in, 577-578; Javanese literature,
581; language, 578-580;
Majapahit Kingdom, 577;
Mataram Kingdom, 575-576;
_ music and dance, 583-584;
_ Sailendras, 573-575; social
customs, 578; Sufism in, 578;
temples, 2

INDEX

Indra, 9

Indus valley civilization, 1, 7-8, 171;
excavations in, 12; Indus script,
6; second stage of, 12; stages of
human settlement in, 3

Inge, W. R., 132

Inge, W. W., 140

inscriptions, 4; in Sitabenga and
Jogimara Caves, 64

international trade, ancient times,
10-11; ports, 83; sea route, 16,
83; silk route, 16

Ionians, 11; Ionian Greeks, 18;
philosophy of, 32

Iqbal, Sir Muhammed, 708

Iranians, 14

Iranian texts, 175

Iran-India trade, 14-15

iron pillar of Delhi, 195

Isaiah, 20

Ishaq, Humayan ibn, 159-160

Islam, 100, 147; Allah (AI
Ulah), God, 149-150; Arab
Nationalism and, 154; Arabs and,
147-148; attack on Buddhism,
314; India’s possible influence
on, 623-633; Jewish influence,
150-151; Judaeo-Christian
tradition and, 151; Kaaba, 148-
149; legion of jinn (genii), 148;
Origin in Islamic brotherhood,
151; prophet Muhammad, 122,
149-151; Quran, 149-150; Seal
of the Prophets, 150; system of
Political organization, 151

Istakhri, 162

Ltsing, 362, 418

Ivory: sources, ancient times, 10,

769219

Jabir, 168

Jacolliot, Louis, 687

Jacquemont, 643

Jafar, Ahmad bin Yaqub bin, 162

Jainism, 24, 193; philosophy of, 178

Jambu Khadaka Jataka, 236

Jami, Abu Salih bin Su’ayb bin, 231

Japan: agriculture and forestry, 446;
analogies between Indian and
Japanese dramas, 451; art, 446-
447; art, Zen Buddhist influence
on, 448-449; Buddhist deities
in, 443; Buddhist influence,
442-449; Buddhist institutions
in, 443; Chinese influence,
439—441; Confucianism in,
425; cultural life, 439; customs
of cremation and ancestor
worship, 444; education and
social service, 446; game of
sunoroku or sugoroku, 452-453;
Gigaku, 449; Heian period,
428—429; Hindu gods in,
443-444; Horyuji Temple,
427; Indian ideas in, 439, 444;
Indian legends in Japanese
literature, 442-443; Indo-
Japanese relations, after World
War Il, 453-454; industrial
and political achievements, 454;
Japanese characters, influence
of Devanagari and Chinese
characters, 441; Japanese
syllabary, 441; Japanese temples,
427; Kokoji Temple, 427;

913

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

literature and learning, 442-443, during Shomu’s reign, 428; as
music and dance, 449-450; state religion, 427; Tantric ideas,
mythology and philosophy, 444— 433; Ulambana, 439; worship of
445; Neoshinto movements, Avalokitesvara, 432; Yogacara
437; no plays, 451-452; School, 427; Zen Buddhism,
paintings, 447; phonetic systems 429-430, 434-435

of Chinese and Japanese, 441; Jatakas, 223, 225-226, 237, 240-
Return to Antiquity Shinto, 437; 242, 510

Sanskrit in, 440-441; Shinto Jawabi hind, 196

religion, 424-425, 436-437; tea Jazla, Ibn, 159

ceremony, 452; Tenjiku Renin,

439; theory of government, 445
e ae ee ee after Jinamiera, 32

eiji Restoration in ; ;
430-431; Amidabutsu, 429; Jivaka 18 Sa
Bhaishajyaguru (the Buddha hee VEEE EE

Jesus Christ. see Christianity
Jewish mysticism, 631

of Healing), 426; Buddha John the Baptist, 117-118
images, 426; Buddhist festivals, Jones, Sir William, 258, 646-648,
438—439; Buddhist worship, 688-689, 692

452; Buddhist worship and Jones, William, 38

ceremonies, 427; challenges, Joseph of Prussia, 268

430-431; against Christianity, Judaism, 107, 113, 117, 122
430; Confucianist opposition Jungle Books, 235

towards, 438; decline of, 430-

431; distinctive features, 432; Kai-Chih, Ku, 404

five major sects, 433; during Kaka Jataka, 243

Fujiwara period, 435—436;
during Kamakura period,
429; during Kotokw’s reign,
432; Mahayana form of, 425,
434; as militant or aggressive,
ission in ERR 432;

Kalakarama Suttanta, 100
Kalderash, 268
Kalidasa, 212
Kalila wa Dimna, 228, 230
kaliyuga, 183
Kamakhya cult, 413
Kamalasila, 321

Kana alphabet, 428
Kanjur, 321

Kant, Immanuel, 679-680

Karmika, 316

Karnamak-i-Artakh Shatr-i-Papakan,

258
Kasack, Hermann, 686
Kassim, Muhammad bin, 153
Kassite documents, 9
Kassiteros, 22
Kasyapasamhita, 410
Kata Pason Aireseon Elenchos, 95
Kathasaritsagara, 236
Katyayana, 180
Kaushitaki-Upanishad, 119
Kautilya, 42, 64, 84, 243
Keats, John, 692
Keith, 84
Keller, Otto, 238
Keyserling, Hermann, 685
Khaldun, Ibn, 158
Khan, Genghis, 152, 154, 323
Khan, Kublai, 323, 364, 540
Khan, Sir Syed Ahmad, 741
Khandakhadyaka, 185
Kharoshthi documents, 303, 312
Kharoshthi script, 17-18
Khitans, 363
Khuastuanift, 135
Khyber Pass, 15
Kien, Fu, 350-351
King, Jr., Martin Luther, 706
king-worship, 68-69; claims of
divinity, 68-70; deification of
rulers, 70
Kitab al-Bayan, 163
Kitab el Sindbad, 232
Kitab Patanjal, 163
Kochanowski, Jan, 269-270

INDEX

Köhler, Reinhold, 220

Korean Buddhism, 417; Buddhist
temples and monasteries, 422;
under Japanese domination, 420;
in Koguryu, 417; in patriotic
wars, 421; in Pekche, 418;
religious literature, influence
on, 422-423; role in national
affairs, 421; in Silla, 418-419;
translation of Buddhist
scriptures, 423; Wonhyo and,
418

Korean syllabary, 423

Krause, Karl Christian Friedrich, 681

Krishna cult in India, 126

Krishnamurti, J., 715

Kshatra Varshishta, 119

Kuang, Lu, 351

Kula Vanija Jataka, 235

Kumaragupta I, 355

Kumarajiva, 312, 349, 351, 380

Kushan coins, 95

Kushan Empire, 92

Kushans, 59-60

Lacoas, Ammonius, 115

Laghujataka, 185

Lalitavistara, 121

Lamaism, 320-321, 323-324,
364-365

Land Revenue Act, 1950, 367

Lang, Andrew, 221

Lang-kie (ka) Lo, 102; Hindu
temples, 102; Sangharamas, 102

Lankavatara Sutra, 354

Lao-tzu, 334, 338, 341, 352, 359,

374, 380

915

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Lassen, Christian, 655
Lavengro, 277

Lecoq, Albert Von, 302
Leucippus, 32

fi and chi principle, 389

Liber Abbaci, 190

Liber Kalilee et Dimnae, 230
Library of Photius, 19

Life of Aesop, 239

Life of Asvaghosa, 351

The Light of Asia, 233

Ling, Ching, 395

Linschoten, Jan Huyghen Van, 640
Li Tai San Pao Chi, 339
Liu-An, 327

Liu Yu, 344

Indra, 9

logos, 21

Lohasastra, 195

Lost Continent of Atlantis, 466-467
Lost Tribes of Israel theory, 466
Lothal, 3, 6

Lo-tsun, 400

Luqa, Qustah ibn, 160
Lysander, 68

eee Lord OEE a Babinet,

Mahabodhi Society, 366

Mahadhammarakkhita, 98

Mahaprajnaparamitasutra, 356

Maharakkhita, 100

Maha Ummagga Jataka, 235

Mahavamsa, 100

Mahavyutpatti, 321

Mahayana Buddhism, 311-312,
314-315, 319-320, 322, 346,
351, 380, 383, 399, 427

Mahayanasamparigrahasastra, 353

Mahayanism, 124, 133

Mahillon, Victor Charles, 253

Mahmud of Ghazni, 152

Maimonides, 168

Maine, Sir Henry, 20

Mainz, Prince Elector of, 263

Maitreya Bodhisattva, 420

Maitreya Buddha, 386, 401

Malaya, 562-569; Buddhism in,
565-568; Indian culture in, 565;
Indo-Malay contact, 563; Islam
in, 568-569

Malchus, 142

Manichaeanism, 102-103, 135,
378; resemblances between and
Buddhism, 102-103

Manjusri, 421

Manka (Manikya), 166-167

Mann, Thomas, 686

Mansouri, EI, 6
_ Mantra cults, 356

INDEX

Marriage Act of 1753, 764

Maruttas, 9

Marvels of India, 161

Matanga, Kasyapa, 341-342, 349

mathematics, 44, 71, 172, 408;
algebra, 164, 190-191;
area of a triangle, 193;
astronomy, relation with,
187; chords, measurement of,
193; conception of opposite
directions on a line, 190; concept
of sunya or zero, 187-189;
concept of zero, 164; decimal
notation, 164; decimal system,
188; geometrical constructions,
192-193; geometry, 192-193;
Hindu computation, 165;
infinity concept, 188; linear
indeterminate equations, 191,
mensuration of the triangle, 192;
parallelogram, 192; place-value
notation, 189; rectangle, 192;
rectangular parallelepiped, 192;
trigonometry, 165; value of p,
193; Vedi (altar), 192

Mathura art, 62

Mathura Buddha, 62

Matsumoto, Bunzaburo, 431

Maurya, Chandragupta, 42, 54, 56,
84

Mauryan kingdom, 14, 17, 54;
decline of, 57; inscriptions, 17;
Sarnath pillar of Asoka, 17; use
of stone for columns and statues,
17

Mayan civilization, 455—456; art,
479-481; contact between
Indianized Southeast Asia and,

458; four ages of the world, 489;
Indian mythology, influence
of, 488; and Indian system of
notation, 458; knowledge of
physics and geometry, 458; lotus
motif, 478-480; makara and
kirttimukha motifs, 480-481,
484; Mayan calendar, 455,
467; Mayan elephant symbol,
488-489; observatory, 478;
sculpture, 478

McPhee, Colin, 254

medical science in India, 166-167,
197-211, 803771; amputation of
limbs, 207; anatomy, 200-201;
anesthetics, 207; anointing of
whole body, 209; Ayurvedic
diagnosis and therapeutics,
200; Ayurvedic medicine, 197,
200, 802745; bile, nature of,
202-203; cataract operations,
206; classification of diseases,
198; Dhanvantari’s Sacteya, 204;
diabetes mellitus, recognition
of, 204; diagnoses, 204; doctrine
of tridosha, 201-202; elements
of human body, 200; embryo,
formation and development of,
201; extracting of dead foetus,
206; fractures, treating, 206;
haemorrhagic diseases, 203;
Hippocratic doctrines, influence
of, 202-203; human body, 200;
hypnotism as therapy, 210;
Indian physicians, popularity
of, 166-167; inflammation,
treating, 206; influence on
Chinese medicine, 410—411;
marmas, concept of, 205;

917

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

medical knowledge, 204;
medical liquors, 207; method
of tying intestinal wounds,
207; nosology, 200; parallels
between ancient Greek medicine
and, 202-204; pathology,
203; physiology, 201; pituitary
gland, part played by, 202;
plant pathology, 208; plants for
dietetic purposes, 209; prenatal
influence, 201; principal ancient
authorities, 199; sterilization
of wound, 206; surgery (salya),
204; teeth cleansing, 209; use of
drugs, 204; use of palpation in
diagnoses, 204

meditation, 354

Megasthenes, 57, 204

Mehta, R. P., 241

Menander (Milinda), 58

Meng-tzu (Mencius), 333-334

Menuhin, Yehudi, 252, 255-257

Merchant of Venice, 234

Mesopotamia, 3, 5, 82, 182

Messiaen, Oliver, 253-254

metaphysics, 25

metempsychosis, 29

Meyrink, Gustav, 686

Michael, 170

Mitra, 9, 15

Mittanic texts, 9

Moderatus of Gades, 128

modern India: Christian missionary
activity and, 726-730;
concepts of liberty and unity,
757-758; concepts of rights and
freedom, 757; Gandhi’s moral
influence, 759-760; influence
of English literature on the
literature of Indian languages,
754-755; nationalism and
Marxism, 755-757; Nehru’s
influence, 759-760; spirit of,
766-767; urbanization, 747;
Western criticisms of Indian
achievements, 761-762;
Western education and,
748-754; Western influence on,
726-730, 746-754, 763-767

Modernism, 767

Mohenjo-daro, 3, 5-6, 12

Moira, 22

monasticism, 115

monotheism, 23

Moore, Thomas, 694

The Morall Philosophie of Doni, 230

Mortillet, Gabriel de, 290

Mosaic Law, 109

Mou-tzu, 338

Mou-tzu, 341

Much, H., 686

Muhalhil, Dulaf bin, 161

‘ujmil al-Tawarikh, 231

sarvastivinaya, 362

25, 123, 216, 219, 230,

INDEX

Mugaddisi, 162

Murray, H. J. R., 258

musical instruments: Chinese guitar
(pi p'a), 406; dvitari, 250;
ehtantri vina, 250; guitar, 292;
Gypsy, 292-293; Indian sitar
(or cithara), 292; kinnori, 250;
pandoura, 250; pinaka, 250;
tambattam, 250; tambura, 292;
vina, varieties, 250-251

The Music and the Musical Instrument
of Southern India, 253

Music of Hindustan, 253

The Music of India, 253

music/sangita, 809750; Arab, 251;
Chinese, 406-407; classical
Indian tune, 246; European,
249; Greek, 251; of Gypsy, 291;
Hungarian, 291; Hungarian
Gypsy orchestra, 297; Indian,
245-247, 251, 297; jati tunes,
246; microtonal variations, 248;
Nataraja and, 245; origin, 245;
pre-vedic times, 245; Russian
Gypsy, 291; Sanskrit work on,
251; secondary notes or svaras,
247; Spanish Gypsy, 297; sruti
scale, 245; system of ragas,
245-247; traga tala, 252; vedic
hymns, 252-253; vikrita, 247,
Western, 248-249; Western
interest in Indian music,
252-257

Muslim Spain, 169

Myers, Charles, 253

Mystery cults, 77-78

The Mystery of the Pezazi, 221

Mysticism, 38, 106, 127-128,

628, 631; Augustine’s, 143;
Hellenistic, 129; Indian, 128,
130

myths, 213; Aryan mythological
heritage, 216; Celtic, 217;
distinction between fable
and, 213; Greek, 216; Indo-
European mythology, 215-218;
Irish, 216; myth of world-egg,
216; Persian, 217

Nabokov, Nicholas, 256

Nagarjuna, 196, 200

Nagarjuna’s doctrine of Sunyata, 352

Nagarjuna’s philosophy, 380, 385

Nag-wan-Lozang, 324

Nalanda Mahavihara, 355, 400

Nanjio, Bunyo, 431

Nasatya, 9

Nasr, Malik Said Iftikhar uddin
Mohammad bin Abu, 230

Natyasastra, 246

Nearchos, 204

Nebuchadnezzar, King, 10

Needham, Joseph, 407

Nehru, Jawaharlal, 754, 759-760

neo-Castilian, 264

Neoconfucianism, 376, 387-392,
820738

Neoplatonism, 103, 136-137,
140-142, 160

Neopythagoreanism, 128-129

Neotaoism, 346, 381

Nepal: Buddhism in, 314-316;
Hindu religious architecture
in, 316; Nepalese sculpture and
painting, 316

919

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Nero, 89

Nestorian Christianity, 378

Neuester Zuwachs der Sprachkunde,
276

Ngan-she-kao, Prince, 103

Nicephorus, Emperor, 155

Nidana, 167

Niebuhr, Reinhold, 104

Nietzsche, Friedrich, 682-683

Nilsson, 48

Nirvana concept, 188, 309, 370, 699

Nitisastra, 227

Nobili, Roberto de, 642

Nomadic Wanderings in the Region of
the Kalmucks, 229

North, Sir Thomas, 230

Notovitch, Nicholas, 125

Novalis, 678

Novum Organum, 172

Nyaya-Vaisesika system, 179, 194

observatories, 166

Odyssey, 21

Oldenberg, Hermann, 253, 684
Ommana, 89

On Breaths, 203

Ophir, 10 —

oracle of Deamon, 69

evolutionist concepts, 474;
cultural evolutionism, 474;
early Vietnamese and Chinese
transpacific voyages, 476-477;
isolationist theory, 474-475 :
migrations from Polynesia to
America, 471-472

Orphic beliefs, 112, 775773

Orphic mystic cults, 77

Orphic philosophy, 34-35

Othman, Caliph, 150

Ottoman Turks, 154

oysters, 87

Padmasambhava, 319-320

Padmavati, 254

Pali, 347

Palmyra, 89

Panaitios, 75

Pancakhyana, 226

Pancatantra, 166, 212, 219-220,
223-228, 231, 236, 240-243;
translation of, 226-230, 232,
237

Panchasiddhantas, 183, 185, 193

Pandu Rajar Dhibi, 11

Panini, 64, 179

Pan-pipes of the Solomon Islands,
490-491

panzavartanna, 9

Paramahamsa, Sri Ramakrishna, 737

- Paramartha, 349, 353

Parmenides, 31-32

INDEX

Pelliot, Paul, 302, 308

Pelopornnesian War (431-404 b.c.),
36

pepper, 88

Pericles, 50

Periplus Maris Erythraei, 89

Perron, Anquetil du, 652

Persian Empire, 16-17, 21, 152,
779n1

Persian Gulf, 16

Petra, 89

Petrovsky, 301

Philip II, 264

Philip of Macedonia, 50

Philippines, 589-592; Buddhism
in, 590; Indian influence, 591;
trade between India and Manila,
591-592

Philosophoumena, 95

Phoenicians, 10-11, 73

Pierre, Bernardin de Saint, 642

Pillai, Maridas, 651-652

Pin, Chiang, 375

Pingala-Chandah-Sutra, 189

Pistis Sophia, 133

Pitakas, 240

Plato, 50, 77, 129; theory of phlegm,
203

Platonic philosophy, 33, 35-36;
contrast between vidya in the
sense of knowledge, 39-40; _
conversion of soul, 39; Dialogues,
36, 41; goodness of personal and
Social life, 42; idea of good, 36;
immortality and transmigration
of soul, 42; Indian influence on,
38-41; Republic, 38-39; state,

classes of, 39

Platonism, 75

Pliny, 87, 89

Plotinus, 137-138, 140; conception
of the One, 138-139; idea of
God, 138; Indian philosophy
and, 141; Nous, 138; rebirth,
139; renunciation, 139; soul as
a prisoner in a satanic jail, 140;
theory of distinction between
emanation and creation, 139

Pococke, 38

Polo, Marco, 364, 506, 576, 634

polytheism, 22

Pope, Alexander, 642

Popley, Herbert A., 253

porcelain, 215

Porphyry, 134, 142

Posidonius of Apamea, 75

Pott, August Friedrich, 277

Po-yen, 312

Prabhakaramitra, 355

Prajnaparamita, 315

Prajnavarmam, 321

Prarthana Samaj, 735

Primitive Culture, 221

Privy Seal, 265

Proclus, 142

Prophets, 19

prostration, Persian custom of, 68

Protagoras, 32

Ptolemaic god-kingship, 67-68

Ptolemaic system of astronomy, 127

Ptolemy, 81, 193, 330; Geography,
89; Guide to Geography, 91;
Periplus Maris Erythraei, 89-90.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, 83

921

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Punic wars, 79

Punyatrata, 352

Pure Land School, 381

Pyogam, 421

pyramids of Southeast Asia and
Mexico, 481, 483

Pyrrhon, 53, 72

Pythagoras, 22, 28-29, 35, 129,
139; celibate brotherhood, 31;
doctrine of metempsychosis,
31; Pythagorean dualism, 31;
Pythagorean system, 29-30

Pythagorean theorem, 192

Quatre Poems Hindous, 254
Quincey, Thomas De, 691
Quit India movement, 702

Racine, Jean, 642
Radhakrishnan, S., 713
Raga Mallika, 254
Ragatarangini, 248
Ragavibodha, 253
Rajasuya Yajna, 326
Ramakrishna Mission, 704, 715, 738
Ramayana, 22
Ramsay, Sir William, 48
Rasaratnakara, 196
RBIS 197

Red Sea voyage, 18

Reform Act of 1867, 764

Reimann, Ludwig, 253

religious intolerance, 106

religious movements, 103, 126

Rhampsinitos, 235

Rhins, M. Dutreuil de, 301

Rig Veda, 13, 21-22, 24, 64, 119,
174, 176, 180-181, 183, 196,
219, 224-225, 245, 253-254,
651, 699

Robertson, William, 689

Rolland, Romain, 704, 707

Romaka, 184

Roman coins, 89

Roman Empire, decline of, 146-147

Romani language, 269-270,
277-278; assimilation with other
languages, 281; communication
method, 279; conjugations of
verbs and declensions of nouns,
281; contributions to French,
289-290; dialects, 289; patrin,
279; Sanskrit and English
equivalent, 279-280; sentence
construction, 280-281; similarity
with Hindi, 281; slang, 289

Roman legal system, 74

Roman numerals, 188

Rome, 86-87; decline of trade with
India, 91; Indian doctrines in,
95; Indian embassies in, 92-93;

_ Indian products, Roman love
for, 88; to India via Red Sea, 86;

luence of imported doctrines,

nflux of Asians and

into, 94-95; Kushan

man authority, 92;

INDEX

lifestyle, 87; origin, 79; Roman
demand for eastern luxuries,
89; Roman pursuit of pleasure,
88; Romans and science, 168;
Roman sexual life, 87-88;
senators of, 87

Roth, Heinrich, 643

Roussel, Albert, 253-254

Roxane, 53

Roy, Ram Mohan, 730, 732-733,
737, 751, 756

“Royal Road,” 82

Royle, 38

Ruckert, Friedrich, 678

Riidiger, J. C., 276

Rumanian response to Indian
culture, 699

Ruskin, John, 696

Russell, George William, 711

Russian response to Indian culture,
699-700

Ryder, Arthur W., 232

Saccas, Ammonius, 136-137
Saddharma Pundarika, 351
Sahajayana, 413

Saif-i-Hindi, 161

Sakas, 59

Sakuntala, 212

Saletore, 42
Samarangana-sutradhara, 210
Sama Veda, 245, 247, 253
Sambhota, Thonmi, 318
Samhitas, 201

Samkhya system, 133, 178, 194
Sampson, John, 272, 277-278
Samugea Jataka, 231

Sanchi stupa, 99

Sandhi Samasa system, 281

Sanghadeva, Gautama, 352

Sangita Ratnakara, 247

sannayasin, 45

Sanskrit, 11, 180, 212, 214, 217-
219, 224, 226, 232, 242, 258,
276-278, 347; 358, 371, 399;
Sanskrit-Tibetan dictionary,
321; use in Buddhist works, 315

Sanskrit writings, 303

Santarakshita, 319

Sarnath pillar of Asoka, 17

Sassanian Empire, 91

Sassanians, 152, 304

Sassanin Empire, 103

Sassetti, Filippo, 640, 770729

Satapatha Brahmana, 181

Scepticism, 106

Schaffer, Albrecht, 686

Schastie and Neschastie, 236

Schlegel, August Wilhelm von, 677

Schlegel, F., 32, 677

Schmitt, Florent, 253

Schopenhauer, Arthur, 680-681

Schweitzer, Albert, 104

science and technology, India,
171; astronomy, 180-186;
beginnings of, 174; belt-
transmission of power, 197;
botany, plant pathology, and
zoology, 196; calendars, 182;
concept of mechanical power,
197; connection between Indian
philosophy and medicine, 173;
cosmophysiology and astronomy,
175-176; herbs and plants,

923

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

healing properties of, 196;
Hindu alchemy, 196; Hindu
astronomical instruments,

182; Hindu research, 180;
Indian theory of great cycles of
universe and agesof world, 183;
mathematics, 172, 187-194;

mineralogy and metallurgy, 195;

motion, 195; nakshatra system,
182; observation method, 180;
phenomena of sound, light,
and heat, 195; physics, 194;
preserving life and caring for
body, 197; priest-astronomer,
181; rita, 175; role of Vedas,
174-175, 182-183; Siddhanta
astronomy, 183-184; spinning
wheel, 197; tempering of
steel, 195; vedic cosmos, 175;
weakness, 194

scientific enquiry, 173

Scott, Sir Walter, 694

Scylax of Caryanda, 18-19

Scythians, 21

Scythicus, 133

seals: Egyptian, 6; stone-seal, 11

Sebokht, Severus, 165

Sejong, King, 423 _

Seleucid ae w, 58, 80-82

Shahryar, Buzurg bin, 162
Shamanism: in Korea, 421
Shangti, Panku, 393
Shangti, Yu Huang, 393
Shankar, Ravi, 256
Shan-Shan, 312
shauaoartanna, 9

She-ling, Chu, 311
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 693
She-lun-tsung, 353
Shen-kung, 399

Shih, Hu, 378

Shih-kao, An, 343
Shih-kao, Ngan, 349
Shih-li-fang, Shrmana, 339
Shiva samhita, 205
Shomu, Emperor, 428
Siddhanta, 164

Siddhanta astronomy, 183
Siddhayoga, 167
Siddhi-Kur, 229
Silanisamsa-Jataka, 123
Silendrabodhi, 321
Simalia, 9

Simon, Richard, 253
Simplicitor Text, 226
Sina, Abu Ali Ibn (Avicenna), 167
Sina, Ibn (Avicenna), 158

_ Sindibad-namah, 232

Sino-Kharoshthi coins, 310

= Sirafi, Abu Zaid, 161.
- Sirionos of Bolivia, 471

I

Sogdians, 307

Solomon, King, 11

Solomon of Judah, 10

Songtsan-Gampo, King, 318-319

Song-yun, 309

Sophocles, 35, 50

Sorabji, Kaikhosru, 255

Southeast Asia, 91; Arabs in, 515;
Buddhism in, 517-518, 524;
Burma, 506-507, 513-514,
533-540; Chinese influence,
524-526; Dong-son culture,
523; gold resources of, 516;
Hinduism in, 517-519, 524;
Indian influence on, 508-510,
519-522; Indian traders and
settlers in, 514—515; Indochina,
550-562; Indonesia, 569-589;
Malaya, 562-569; Philippines,
589-592; pre-Christian contact
between India and, 505,
512-513; research work and
early evidences on, 506-508,
510-511; Satavahana period,
517; sea routes between
India and, 512-513; Siam or
Thailand, 540-550; Sri Lanka,
Sinhala, or Ceylon, 527-533; as
Suvarnabhumi, 505

Southey, Robert, 693

Sovereign city-state, 72

Spain, Arab heritage of, 169

Spanish dancer, 298

Spencer, William R., 237

Sti Lanka, Sinhala, or Ceylon,
527-533; Aryan migration,
527-528; Buddhism in,
528-530; Ceylonese alphabet,

NDEX

530; Ceylonese antiquities, 531;
Ceylonese art and architecture,
530-531; Ceylonese literature,
530; cultural relations with
India, 527; dance and music,
531-532; Indian influence,

531-532; painting and sculpture,
531; sacred shrines of the Pallava
period in, 531; Sinhalese culture,

528-529; Sinhalese folksongs,
532-533

St. Augustine, 143

St. Bartholomeo, Fra Paolino de,
644

St. Hippolytus, 95

St. John of Damascus, 233

Statira, 53

Stein, Aurel, 102, 301-302, 307-
309, 397

Stephanites kai Ichnelades, 230

Stevens, Thomas, 640

Stoicism, 71-72, 75-77, 106,
783751; whole universe,
philosophy of, 74

Stoics, 73

story-telling, 233

Strabo, 204

Strabo's Geography, 90-91

Strassburg, Gottfried V., 231

Suez canal, 16, 18

Sufism, 578, 625-633

Sukasaptati, 229, 231

Sulaiman, 161

~ Sulvasutras, 192-193

Sumerian city, 5

Sumerian civilization, 6

Sun Pyramid at Teotihuacan, 481,

925

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

483

Surendrabodhi, 321

Surias, 9

Surya Siddhanta, 163, 184-185, 193

Susruta, 199, 205; list of medicinal
plants, 208; surgical instruments,
206; surgical technique, 206

Susruta Samhita, 199

Sussondi Jataka, 100

Susu, 9

Sutarna, 9

Sutra of Forty-two Sections, 349

Sutta Pitakas, 240

Suwardata of Keilah, 9

Svabhavika, 316

Syncretism, 110

Syracusans, 69

Syria, 82, 84

Syrian Christians of Malabar, 125

Syrian kingdom, 56

Tabaqat al-Ulam, 162
Tachito, Shiba, 425
Tagore, Debendranath, 733
Tagore, Rabindranath, 13, 704,
708-709, 711, 758
Taishi, Prince Shotoku, 424, 426
Tai-shu, 367
e

tandava, 245

Tanjur, 321

Tang, Yaqub ibn, 164

Tantrakhyayika, 226, 241

Tantric Buddhism, 319-320

Tantric cult, 196, 204-205

Tao, Wang, 346

Tao-chieh, 367

Taoism, 334-337, 359, 369-370,
372, 374-375, 384, 388,
392, 413; doctrine of wuwei,
336; metaphysics, 336; as a
philosophy, 335; principles of
nature, 335-336; as a religion,
335; Taoist Trinity, 393; vs
Confucianism, 335

Tao-sheng, 385

Tao Te Ching, 334

Tarikh al-Hind, 163

Tarka, 321

Tarn, W. W., 66

Tavernier, J. B., 642

Tell-el-Amarna tablets, 9

Temple of Pashupatinath, 316

Temple of the Moon at Mugheir, 10

teravartanna, 9

Terbinthus, 133

Thabit, Zaid ibn, 149

Thailand (Siam), 540-550;
Buddhism in, 540-541;
Buddhist sculpture, 549; cultural

contact with India, 541-542;

meet ni

INDEX

Nanchao kingdom, 540-541;
Rama Kamheng, reign of,
546-547; relics of Indian
and Greek culture, 543-544,
religious contact with Ceylon,
547; Siamese dance, drama,
and music, 550; Siamese fiction
and mythological literature,
549-550; Siamese legal system,
550; Thai culture, 547-548;
trade routes between India and,
542-543

Thales, 22, 48

Thales of Miletus, 22

theocrasia, 106

Theodosius II, 142

Theodosius of Constantinople,
Emperor, 81

theory of Buddhist influence,
468—469

Theory of Four Tones, 395

Theosophical Society, 716, 738

Theravada Buddhism, 309, 314

Theresa, Maria, 268

Thevenot, 642

Thoreau, Henry David, 701-702

Tibet, 314; Bkahgdamspa School of
Buddhism, 324; Buddhism in,
317-325; Buddhist reforms, 323;
Kagyupa school of Buddhism,
324; Old Tantric or Translation
School of Buddhism, 323-324;
relations between India, 321-
323, 325; Tibetan art, 322-323;
Tibetan medical system, 322;
Tibetan Tantric forms, 322;

Tibetan translations of Sanskrit
texts, 318

Tibetan Buddhism, 364-365

T’ien-shan, 307

Tien-t’ai Buddhism, 419

Tigris-Euphrates civilizations, 5

Ti-hsien, 367

Tilak, Bal Gangadhar, 756

Timaeus, 203

Timon of Philius, 72

Tokharestan, 304; Buddhism in,
304-305

Tolstoy, Leo, 700

tombs, Egyptian, 6

Trablus, 285

trade with India, 299; Arabs, 156,
161; Egypt, 82-85; Greek,
19-20, 43, 84; Iran, 14-15;
monsoon routes, 86; Ptolemies’
policy of trading with India,
85; Rome, 91; sea commerce,
83-86; spices, 88; tin and lead,
88; via Red Sea coast, 83, 86

translations of Indian classicals,
226-230, 235-236

The Transposed Heads, 254

Trinitarians, 145

Trisong-Detsan, 319

Tristan and Isolde, 231

Tsai, Chang, 389

Tse-tung, Mao, 367

Tsung, Emperor Tai, 355

Tun-i, Chou, 389

Tutinameh, 231

Tylor, E. B. 221

Tylor, Edward, 260

uartanam, 9
Uddalaka, 177

927

INDIA AND WORLD CIVILIZATION

Uigur Empire, 313

Uji Shui Monogatari, 442

The Unknown Life of Christ, 125

Upanishads, 22, 25, 29, 176-178,
Brahma-Vidya, 139; self-
realization, 140

Urwick, E. J., 38-39

v: Indo-Egypt contact, 82-84

Vac, doctrine of, 21

Vagbhata, 199

Vairocana, Arya, 309

Vairocana Buddha, 428, 432

Vaisnava shrines, 62

Vajrabodhi, 355, 386

Valcanius, Bonaventura, 276

Valentinus, 132

Valyi, Stefan, 276

vanaprastha, 45

Varahamihira, 164, 185; Navagraha
Siddhanta of, 409

Varahmihira, 180

Varuna, 9, 15

Vedabbha Jataka, 235

Vedanga Jyotisa, 181

Vedic Aryans, 21

vedic civilization, 175

E vae India concept absolute

(discussion), 43
vedic literature, 9, 11
Vedic religion, 60
Verlaine, Paul, 687
Vesey-Fitzgerald, Brian, 273, 282
Vespasian, 89
Vetalapancavimsati, 229
Vikramacaritra, 229
Vimalakirtinirdesa, 351
Vimalaksa, 352
Vinaya Pitakas, 240
Virocana Jataka, 236
Visnudharmottara Mahapurana, 210
Visnusarman, 227

Vivekananda, Swami, 703-704, 715,

737

Wagner, Richard, 253, 683-684
Wahdat-al-Wujud, doctrine of, 627
Wahshiya, Ibn, 168

Waley, Arthur, 327-328

Walid, 153

Walker, Kenneth, 713

Weber, A., 239

Weber, Albrecht, 252

Wei-shou, 340

The Well-tempered Clavichord, 249
Wen-Chang, Emperor, 374
Werfel, Franz, 686

i Westernism, 767

s White Lotus Society of Lushan

~ Wheeler, Sir Mortimer, 90

ee

Wilson, Edmund, 109
Winckler, Hugo, 9
Winckler, Josef, 685-686
Woolley, Sir Leonard, 6
Woolner, A. C., 278
Wordsworth, William, 691
Wu, Emperor, 311, 340, 343, 345,
354, 374, 383
Wu-kong, 362
Wu-ti, Emperor, 353
Wu-tsung, 375

Xandrames, 51
Xenophanes, 22, 31
Xerxes, 19

Yajnavalkya, 177

Yajur Veda, 182, 245

Yang, Emperor, 359
Yang-chu, 334

Yang-ming, Wang, 391-392
Yangtze Valley, 1

Yatrika, 316

Yavana, 54

Yavana bodyguards, 63
Yavana colony, 90

Yavana kings, 101

Yavanas, 95, 100-101, 185
Yavana settlements, 54
Yavana ships, 90

Yavana traders, 63

Yavana workmanship, 63
Yavanika (the Greek curtain), 64
Yazid II, 271

INDEX

Yeats, W. B., 247

Yeats, William Butler, 709-710
Ye-ses-sde, 321

Yi, Cheng, 389

Yin-kuang, 367

yin-yang theory, 337

Yogacara Buddhism, 419

Yoga doctrine of Patanjali, 139
Yoga philosophy, 717
Yogasataka, 200

Yoga schools, 716

Yomei, Emperor, 426
Yuan-chang, Chu, 365
Yuan-Lu, Wang, 302
Yuehchih, 59—60

Yueh-chih, 339

Yung, Shao, 389

Zarathustra (Zoroaster), 20

Zenonians, 72-74

Zeno of Citium, 72-73

Zeno of Elea, 31

Zeno of Tarsus, 73

Zorastrianism, 110-111; Mithra in,
111

Zoroaster, 15, 48

Zoroastrianism, 15, 38, 100, 102,
135, 152, 213, 378; fire-temples,
101; temptations of Zoroaster,
123; Zarathustra (Zoroaster),
101

Zotts, 271-272, 278

Zumarraga, Juan de, 460

Zweig, Stefan, 686

929

Af

eS
-eT

India’s flourishing spice trade with great empires like Rome,
Ai Egypt and China has been proven, thanks to the recovery
`of Roman coins at archaeological sites in Harappa and
Mohenjodaro. However, this book takes readers through the
` 5,000 years of contact between India and the civilizations, near
and far, that established relations with it. It also looks at the
foreign invaders who plundered the land, others who made it
their home, the respective religions that held sway over India
at different times and their contributions to the art, music,
l structure of ee As the book aptly states,

Non-fiction

978-81-291-3092-1

Ti